From Which There Is No Escape
by Steph81
Summary: Naomi Campbell works on Rob Fitch's deep core drilling team with many of your other favorite Skins characters. Emily Fitch is Rob's secretary and also stays on the rig with the rest of the gang. Gina, saving the world one lentil at a time, always wanted Naomi to save the world...perhaps she'll get her chance.
1. Chapter 1

**So, I have a little writer's block on the other stories and a fun idea came up between Ms. Macrocosm and I on Twitter. Now that my wheels are turning, I've decided to go with it! Haha so humor my silliness and enjoy the first chapter of From Which There Is No Escape! **

Emily smiles in the morning sun and breathes in the salty ocean air of the South China Sea. Her red locks flow in the breeze and she closes her eyes, enjoying the hum of the machinery on the rig. Emily jumps when she feels her phone vibrate in her pocket and pulls it out to answer, "Hey Katie, what's up?"

"Hey babes, what time is there?" Katie asks in a sleepy voice as she balances the phone between her shoulder and cheek while she paints her nails."Erm, it's a little after 8am, how about you? I can never keep the time zones straight anymore." Emily smiles and rolls her eyes.

Katie giggles, "Yeah, it must be a work hazard. It's a little after 1am."

"Yeah, so how's it going at home? James being good in college?" Emily leans against the railing of the massive rig.

"He's actually doing well, when he's not being a total prick that is. It's going well here, but we miss you and dad a lot. Mum has actually planned on James coming to visit her and Carl, but I don't know if he wants to see her. I know I don't, but he is almost out for summer break so the decision is his." Katie blows her nails and closes the cap to her polish bottle.

"Good, I'm glad he's doing well. As for Jenna, he can do what he wants, but I'm with you on no interest in seeing her. Dad is doing good, accept Naomi is pissing him off again." Emily chuckles."Aaah Naomi, that's the blonde one right?" Katie asks with a smirk.

"Yes. Naomi is quite blonde, and rather beautiful. Dad agrees." Emily cocks her head to the side and looks up at the colorful rising sun sky, leaning her back to the ocean.

"So have you asked her out yet then?" Katie rolls her eyes. "Does she know you like her?"

"It's not that simple Kay, I mean…we all live and work on the rig, it's complicated."

"I don't get that Ems, you like _her_ and from the sounds of it _she_ likes you too. What's so complicated?" Katie flops back onto her bed and inspects her nails with a smile.

"Oh yeah? Okay well, what about Cook then? He's madly in love with you and -"

"That's complicated Ems!" Katie yells and rubs her eye with her palm.

"How so? He spent two weeks living with us when dad insisted he come over for the holidays last year. You two were inseparable? And I _know_ you hooked up, we share a wall you know."

"There was mistletoe! What was I supposed to do?" Katie laughs.

"Whatever. He asks about you constantly you know." Emily smiles, "He's a good guy, you should give him a chance."

"Yeah, well he's 7 hours away though. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about the holiday I planned."

"Yeah? Where are you going?" Emily hears a noise and looks over at the office door to see Rob walk out. He see her looking over and sends her a wave with his muscular arm and smiles a toothy grin at her. Emily smiles and waves back.

"Morning love!" Rob calls over to Emily.

"New York City! Finally I'm going to get my Big Apple shopathon on!" Katie squeals from the other end. "Hey is that dad I hear? Tell him hello and I love him yeah?"

Emily nods and looks over at Rob, "Dad! Katie sends her hellos and love!"

Rob smiles and before he can respond, Cook jumps down from a vertical ladder of the rig, "Oi! Katikins!? Send her _my_ love too yeah?!" Rob smacks him on the back of the head with a grin.

"Back off _boy_!" Rob smiles, "That's my other little girl you're talking about yeah? Emily laughs and shakes her head.

"Is that Cook!? Fuck's sake, well I'm going to let you go now since our conversation has become a public affair. I'll talk to you later okay?" Katie scuffs.

Emily laughs, "Okay Kay, I love you."

"Yeah you too," Katie smiles.

"See you." Emily says before hanging up. She looks up at the goofball men now sparing with each other a few feet from her and rolls her eyes and walks past them, "Gentlemen?"

"Hey morning Ems!" Cook giggles, "Have any sweet dreams of you know who?" Emily responds with her middle finger and a smirk over her shoulder.

Rob rolls his eyes and shakes his head, "I assume you're referring to the blonde pain in my ass?"

Cook laughs with a gaping smile, "Ah come on Rob!? She ain't so bad! What you got against Naomikins? You hired her after all?"

Rob bites his tongue, "Yeah, yeah. She's just a cocky, know-it-all who _thinks_ she knows it all, but doesn't…at least not when it comes to drilling for oil." He runs his hand through his hair. "I mean, I see what Emily may see in her, but as her dad I wish she'd choose a more reliable person…like you Cook."

Cook laughs, "Umm, she's gay and besides, I like the other one boss." Cook pats Rob on the shoulder. "And Naomi maybe one stubborn chick, but she is a decent bird. Come on, let's get some breakfast yeah?"

Rob smiles and nods, "Yeah, I'm craving some bacon!"

Cook laughs and throws his arm around Rob, "Yeah mate! These are the joys of getting out of the gym business and into something real, no you can eat some _real_ food!"

"Bacon, the breakfast of champions!" Rob laughs and together they walk towards the dining hall.

XXXXX

Naomi stirs in her bed and pulls herself upright. She groans as she stretches her arms out from side to side and let's out a yawn. Running her fingers through her messy blonde hair, she looks out her circular window and smiles at the sunshine beaming through. Naomi hops down from the top bunk and grimaces as her feet hit the cold ground. She throws on a baggy jumper and some boxer shorts and heads out to get some coffee. Naomi swings open her door and is greeted with a marvelous fresh breeze the blows her hair back off her shoulders.

"Well that looked straight out of a movie," A husky voice says that catches Naomi off guard. Emily smiles over at Naomi from her seat at the table that looks over the railing and off to the water. Emily is sitting sideways with her knees curled up to her chest with a cup of tea next to her. She squints in the sun and giggles, "Good morning."

"Emily, you scared the shit of me." Naomi laughs, "Good morning yourself." Naomi adjusts her jumper self consciously.

"Sorry, it's the downfall for being the room next to the best seat in the house." Emily smiles into her cup and turns out to view the ocean.

Naomi grins, "Yeah well, it's only the best for me you know." Naomi winks as tucks her hair back behind her ears. "Did you get any breakfast?"

"Yeah, I ate my weight in bacon." Emily laughs and blushes at Naomi's smile.

Naomi's smile drops, "Bacon? It's bacon day? Fuck! I better get in there before JJ and Sid eat it all."

"Well you better get in there then," Emily laughs again. "I had to claw my way just to get my share!"

Naomi laughs at the image of Emily throwing bows to get some bacon and smiles back at her, "Well I'll see you later yeah?" Emily smiles warmly at her and waves as Naomi quickens her pace to the dining hall.

XXXXX

"Oi!" Naomi smacks Sid's hand causing him to drop the last few strips of bacon. "You've practically eaten all of it!" She smirks as she takes the stolen strips from Sid and chomps into a piece happily.

"Actually Naoms, Emily ate most of it!" Sid laughs with JJ.

"Yes, the shear amount of bacon Emily consumed is the equivalent to 3 whole pigs!" JJ snorts into his orange juice.

Chris jumps down onto the table bench, "Yeah Naoms, your girl can put it away." He grins as takes a bite a his bagel and squeezes a blob of cream cheese from the silver packet into his mouth.

"Chris! That's so gross when you do that!" Naomi throws a balled up napkin towards his head. "Put the cheese properly on your bagel before you take a bite, fuck's sake!" Naomi takes a sip of her coffee and smiles, "And she's _not_ my girl!"

Cook nudges Naomi in the ribs, "Yet." He gives her a cheeky grin as he steals a piece of her bacon.

"Fuck off Cook." Naomi rolls her eyes and brings her attention back to her breakfast and gasps, "Hey! Tosser!"

Cook laughs with a mouthful of bacon and throws his hands up to protect his face from Naomi's now flailing fists. "Ha! You're so easily distracted when it comes to her and you don't even realize it. Just admit it Naoms, you want a taste of that Twin Pop!"

Naomi shakes her head and takes a sip of her coffee, "Why oh why did I ever choose to work with such wankers!?"

"Awe you love us," Chris says as he finishes the last of his bagel and rolls his cream cheese packet like a tube of toothpaste. He then squirts the remaining cheese into his mouth while looking at Naomi with a childish grin.

Naomi just rolls her eyes and grabs her tray and cup of coffee and stands up to excuse herself. "See you morons later." She smiles over her shoulder and heads towards the door to the dining hall. Before she exits, she spots Thomas in the kitchen and leans over the counter and pops her head in, "Thank you for breakfast Thomo! It was delicious, what I actually managed to grab before the boys ate it all!"

"Avec plaisir mon ami!" Thomas winks at Naomi from the ovens and smiles. Naomi waves and smiles before making her exit of the dining hall.

XXXXX

Naomi walks outside and smiles from the sunshine's warmth on her body. Spotting Emily still sitting in her favorite spot, Naomi clears her throat and grins as she saunters closer to Emily. "Hey." Naomi says as she stands over Emily's shoulder.

Emily jumps and juggles her phone in her hands, "Jesus!" Emily manages to catch her phone before launching it overboard and looks up at Naomi. "You scared me. Do you know _how _many phones I've lost since working on this rig?"

Naomi laughs, "Care if I join you?" Emily smiles and nods as Naomi takes a seat. "Well the one time when you practically used your phone as a hacky sack and kicked it into the sea was pretty funny." Naomi chuckles as she rests her elbows on the table next to Emily.

Emily shakes her head, "It's not funny, phones are expensive and it takes forecer to get them shipped to us." Emily smiles in embarrassment, "Plus Katie was really pissed at me for that, she thought I hung up on her. She needed advise about something and I couldn't talk to her for days until I had a phone."

"Why didn't you use someone else's phone? You could've used mine you know?" Naomi laughs.

"I know, but I didn't have her number. She had just changed it and I didn't write it down before sending it to the fishes. Dad didn't have it either and my laptop is so slow, twitter and facebook aren't worth it, so I emailed her to let her know what happened. Unfortunately she never checks anything, so I was stuck until I got a new phone and she called me." Emily smiles as she swirls the last of her tea in her cup. "Obviously I now write down my contacts immediately."

Naomi smiles and shakes her head, "Yeah? Do you have mine written down?"

"Of course, I also have it memorized." Emily gives Naomi a cheeky smile.

Naomi scuffs, "Are you stalking me?" Naomi grins, "Waiting outside my door, memorizing my information, peeking in my window at night?"

"Oi! I do _not _peek in your window at night! That's Sid! And serves you right for sleeping naked." Emily grins, "A privilege for being the only female crew mate yeah?"

Naomi shakes her head, "Yeah I guess…bunch of pervs."

Emily smiles at Naomi, "But you _are_ very stalkable."

Naomi licks her lips and smiles, "I'll take that as a compliment…I guess." She takes a sip of her now cold coffee and looks out to the ocean. "Oh nice, freaking whalers off in the distance…I hate them."

Emily frowns as she see the boats Naomi is referencing to, "It is pretty fucked up…poaching."

"Yeah, well my mum is a big activist. She _hates _what I do for a living, but at least she knows I stand up for the animals." Naomi glares off in the distance.

"Yeah? Like have you ever thrown paint of people for wearing fur and stuff?" Emily smiles half joking.

"Well not exactly, but I try to educate and nip ignorance in the bud." Naomi smiles at Emily.

"So how did you get into this position and what does your mum think about it? Working with ooooils" Emily laughs. "I mean, my dad was always into this except for his gym owning phase. I landed in this because of him, and his lack of organization." Emily smiles and peaks at her phone. "Oh it's almost 9, don't be late yeah?"

Naomi's eyes bug out, "Shit! I gotta run, I'll see you later yeah and I'll tell you how I got involved with ooooils?" Naomi smiles and nearly falls trying to get out from under the table and runs off to prevent being late. She tries to ignore Emily's giggles and just bites her lip in embarrassment.

XXXXX

"CAMPBELL!" Rob screams as oil squirts all over his t-shirt that reads, "Strike it RICH with FITCH!"

Naomi slides down a vertical ladder, "Yeah! Right her Rob!"

"Goddamn it Campbell! I told you to shut number 2 down last night! It chewed 140 feet last night!" Rob screams!

"I had a hunch! I swear I thought it was a sure thing!" Naomi whines as she helps to stop the stream of oil.

They get the oil to stop and start cleaning up the mess, "My office! NOW!" Rob yells at her. Naomi nods and rolls her eyes, following Rob to his office. They walk in, passing Emily who is shuffling papers at her desk. She looks at Naomi and gently smiles, realizing Rob is furious and both are covered in oil. Rob follows Naomi into his office and slams the door behind him. He sits on his desk, toweling his arms and face off. Naomi defiantly sits with her arms crossed and oil dripping from her nose. She wipes it off and looks up at him.

"Look, I had a hunch okay!? I had a good feeling that it would work." Naomi rubs the bridge of her nose with her oil saturated hand.

"Listen, this is my company! My rules! My ass on the line!" Rob sternly says to Naomi. "When you have your own 8 million and your own company, you can do what you want."

Naomi nods and looks down at her feet. "Sorry Rob."

"Naomi you know what I need to hear." Rob places his hands on his knees and looks directly into Naomi's piercing blue eyes.

She nods, "I'll never do that again." Naomi looks at her hands and huffs.

Rob nods and says, "Yup, and Naomi?" She looks up at Rob. "That's strike two, one more and you're out." Naomi shrugs and nods as she stands.

Naomi walks past Emily at her desk once again. Emily looks up, "Hey, everything alright?"

Naomi holds her arms out at her sides and looks down at her clothes, "Never a dull moment!"

Emily smiles, "I see that."

"Yeah, well. The fun is over, I fucked up and I'm on your dad's shit list…again."

"Well, just give him some time. He will get over it, he just needs some time. He's really a big softy." Emily smiles.

"Yeah? If you say so. Hey, I thought you were off today?" Naomi smiles.

"I was…but I came in for one thing and find myself working." Emily laughs. "But I guess it's better than being covered in oil?"

"Perhaps." Naomi laughs, "But I should get cleaned up and back to work. See you later?"

"Yeah, see you," Emily nods.

XXXXX

**It's just a start! :D I'm tired and have to stop now but there is more to come. This is mainly all back stories right now anyway…the fun is on its way XD thanks for reading and let me know what you think! xxooxx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to all the folks who've read this so far! I really appreciate the few who've taken the time to write a review, it seriously means the world to me! Sam, you're the bestest...Hypes, I'M NOT WORTHY! I'M NOT WORTHY! ;) Hahaha sorry, that's just how I feel! Audwee...thanks dude. :D Onwards and upwards... **

**OH YEAH! I don't own Skins! :D**

**Chapter 2, you know what to do :)**

Naomi lays in her bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. The scolding of Rob Fitch still stings her psyche. With a huff Naomi rolls to her left side and glances out the window. The stars of the night sky shine and she smiles, and in that moment her phone buzzes with a message alert. Naomi looks at her phone and her smile widens when she sees a message from Emily.

**Hey! Are you up? **

Naomi shifts her wait so that she can use her left hand and responds:

**I was just star gazing actually. What are you up to?**

Naomi flops back down and stars out the window until she hears her phone go off seconds later. She lifts her phone to read the message:

**Awe, making a wish? **

Naomi chuckles and responds:

**No wishes, but I did think of American Tail and almost started humming "Somewhere Out There" to myself.**

Naomi sits up and stretches in her bunk when Emily responds seconds later:

**I'm actually doing the same thing…right next to you ;)**

Naomi snorts at this message and responds:

**Ah, STALKING ME AGAIN I SEE?! ;) Shall I come join you?**

Naomi jumps down from her bed and pulls on a hoodie and some pj bottoms as her phone goes off.

**I was just about to ask lol Get your ass out here and keep me warm! :P**

Naomi grabs her comforter off her bed and wraps it around her body as she makes her way to her door. She tries not to trip over her blanket while shutting her door and ends up shutting it in the door instead.

"Fuck!" Naomi mumbles to herself as she tries to release her blanket from the door.

Emily snorts as she hears Naomi's struggle. She turns and looks back over her shoulder with an adorable grin as Naomi rewraps the blanket around her and walks towards Emily. When Naomi is close enough, Emily smiles, "Everything okay?"

Naomi rolls her eyes and climbs into her seat with a groan, "Hey, no teasing or I won't share my blanket with you okay?" She smiles at Emily and holds out her left blanket wing to her. Emily smiles and bounces towards Naomi and cuddles into her side as Naomi drops her arm over Emily and pulls her close. Naomi shivers in the cold pocket that Emily just created and whispers, "It's cold tonight." The tip of Naomi's nose brushes against Emily's forehead and Emily shivers, causing Naomi to pull her closer.

Emily grins and looks up at Naomi, "I brought snacks." She reveals a small red and yellow box with animals on the cover.

Naomi looks down and smiles, "Awe, you brought animal crackers." Emily smiles and nods. "I never understood them you know," Naomi laughs as she reaches for one. "I really don't think that the animal cracker qualifies as a cracker."

"What!? Why?" Emily laughs as she bites the head off a hippo and looks off into the sky.

Naomi smiles and looks down at the lion she has in her hand, "Well cause it's sweet which to me suggests cookie, and you know, I mean putting cheese on something is sort of the defining characteristic of what makes a cracker a cracker."

"You're sweet, you know that?" Emily nudges Naomi with her shoulder.

Naomi turns and looks at Emily and smiles, "Yeah well, you're father certainly doesn't think so, he thinks I'm a reckless wanker."

"How long have you worked for my dad?" Emily cocks her head to the side and looks at Naomi.

"About 5 years I suppose." Naomi shrugs.

"Well, you two have butted heads in the past right, I mean I know my dad really respects you and your work…you just have a tendency to be a little ballsy and sometimes it backfires." Emily pats her hand on Naomi's knee. "But hey look on the bright side, you're only on strike two out of all the crap you've done over 5 years." Emily giggles and makes Naomi crack a smile.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. But I've also had people like you and Cook stand up for me and my ways." Naomi shrugs.

Emily huffs and sits up from Naomi's side and squares her body Naomi and holds out her arms, "Come here." Naomi looks at her and smiles welcoming Emily's strong arms around her warm body. Emily smiles and squeezes Naomi and mumbles, "Fitch hug."

Naomi chuckles into Emily's shoulder, "Just what I needed, how did you know?"

Emily pulls back and smiles, "I have hunches too ya know."

Naomi bites her lip, "Do you now? What else do you have a hunch about?" Naomi raises a daring eyebrow.

Emily smiles and finds her eyes drifting downward to Naomi's lips. Naomi licks her lips when she sees where Emily's eyes are directed and finds herself doing the same to Emily's. Naomi's breath hitches when she feels Emily's hands cup over hers under the blanket. Startled, Naomi looks down at her hands to be surprised by the butterflies in her belly and the warmth of Emily's lips on hers.

Naomi smiles as Emily's lips leave her and she bites her lips, "Well, I guess your hunches are a lot more on than mine lately."

"Yeah? Well, let's see if I can go two for two." Emily smiles as she leans in and presses her lips to Naomi's once again.

Naomi smiles and giggles, "I've wanted to do that for a long time now."

Emily cocks her head to the side playfully, "So why didn't you?"

"It's complicated." Naomi shrugs.

Emily nods, "I know, that's what I said too."

"To who? You really _are _a stalker!" Naomi playfully pushes Emily.

Emily laughs, "Shut up! I'm not a stalker, and it was Katie I was talking to about you okay?" Naomi laughs and wraps the blanket fully around her and pulls her in tight. "Besides, it's not like I can talk to anyone on this rig about you. Those horny boys already figured you out a long time ago."

Naomi snorts, "What!? How would you know that?"

Emily laughs, "Cook wouldn't shut up about you when he came home with dad and I over the holiday break. All Christmas long I had to hear about how great you are and that he knows we like each other. It was only till he got distracted with Katie that he finally shut up, no offense."

Naomi laughs, "None taken."

Emily smiles, "I knew how I felt about you then, and didn't need anymore persuasion." Emily tangles her fingers into Naomi's. "I just knew things are complicated with my dad and the fact that we are pretty much stuck on this rig and if things didn't work out, it'd be horrible."

"And now?" Naomi plays with their fingers.

"I realized it's rather simple. I like you and I know that if we died tomorrow, I'd regret never telling you how I felt and feeling those lips on mine."

"But what about Rob? I mean your dad?" Naomi huffs out the breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Let me handle him yeah?" Emily smiles as she cups Naomi's face and pulls her closer to taste her lips again.

XXXXX

Emily jumps off her pillow to the sounds of her phone ringing, waking her from her sweet dreams of her early AM activities with Naomi. "Hello?" Emily asks in a groggy voice.

"Morning babes!" Katie chirps from the other end.

"Hey Kay, what's up?" Emily rubs the sleep from her eyes and sits up in her bed.

"Well I'm leaving for New York today! I just wanted to talk to you before I left." Katie giggles with excitement.

"Oh that's cool, what about James?" Emily flops back down onto her pillow and pulls the blankets over her shoulder.

"James actually decided to go see mum and Carl…weird huh? His flight was earlier this morning, he should be arriving now if not all ready there. Mum's picking him up from the airport and it's off to fun times with her and the step-dad." Katie says while throwing some garments into suitcase.

"Wow. That should be an interesting trip to the States. I mean Carl is okay, for retired Navy guy, but he just seems a bit obsessed with that massive telescope of his." Emily chuckles.

"Yeah well, mum seemed pretty excited about it, I don't think her and Carl aren't doing too good. She was saying all he does is hang out in his observatory, eat and sleep. Haha I also don't think he's a fan of her cooking, big shocker there." Katie laughs.

"Well James knows what he's getting into, but he always was interested in Astronomy so maybe he'll have fun. Anyway, when do you leave?" Emily plays with the condensation on the window and draws a heart with a N in the center.

"I I have to leave for the airport in a few hours and I'm still packing, I'm a procrastination genius...where the fuck is…" Katie rolls her eyes as she searches for her flat iron. "Ah! There you are!"

"Are you going to get me anything?" Emily giggles.

"Yeah, but first does Naomi's middle name start with a 'Y' by any chance?" Katie smirks waiting for Emily's response.

"Um no…why?" Emily raises her eyebrows mockingly.

"Damn, there goes my first idea of an I heart NYC shirt for you." Katie snorts with laughter.

"Haaa. Very funny Katie." Emily can't hold back the smile creeping out. "Well it may as well be YOLO cause I kissed her the other night."

Katie unluckily takes a sip of her tea when Emily says this news and spits her tea all over her suitcase. "WHAT?! You what?!" Katie puts down the tea and starts frantically wiping off her suitcase.

"I kissed Naomi," Emily giggles and buries her face into her pillow.

"I heard you! I mean how, why now? I thought it was complicated or some bullshit excuse like that?" Katie sits down on the bed next to her suitcase.

"Yeah well, maybe I was just scared or avoiding the obvious…but I figured life's short and I didn't want to ever wonder what it was like to kiss her. So I did…a lot." Emily shuts her eyes with blissful memories.

"Whoa. Does dad know? I mean are you two together now? Like officially?" Katie's questions keep coming in quick succession.

"Um, no he doesn't officially know. I'm pretty sure Cook filled him in awhile ago how she feels and he already knew how I felt. We hadn't talked about anything official yet, I'm just enjoying what I have." Emily smiles and bites her lip.

"Which is…?" Katie pries some more.

"Her." Emily grins.

"But that would _mean _something more than friendship wouldn't it? God you lezzas are annoying. Just call it what it is! You have been in love with this chick for like ever and she totally is into you and you finally kiss and all you say is 'you're enjoying what you have…her.' What is that Emily!?" Katie flails her arm around throwing a scarf into her suitcase.

Emily laughs at her sister's exasperation, "Kay chill out! I'm just not trying to smother things okay? I know Naomi is a bit skittish around dad right now and she's trying to keep her nose clean. Plus they've been putting in a lot of overtime and I haven't really seen her since that night."

"Well okay, I get that then. So Ems, I got to finish packing and get a move on to the airport. I call you when I get there okay?" Katie says as she zips open her toiletry case.

"Yeah sure, I love you. Fly safe okay?" Emily smiles to cover the worry in her voice.

" I love you too Ems, talk to you soon." Katie smiles before hanging up.

XXXXX

"James!" Jenna holds out her arms as James comes into view at the airport. James smirks and grabs his bag from the luggage carrousel.

"Hey mum." James is almost suffocated in an ex-Fitch hug.

"I may not be a Fitch anymore, but I can still hug like one mister." Jenna smiles and ruffles James' hair. "How was your flight? Are you excited to be in the States?" James just nods and smiles, "Okay Mr. Enthusiasm, let's get you back and settled then you can have dinner. I made your favorite…"

"Fish and chips?!" James' eyes perk up.

"Well no. I made artichoke and beetroot soup and flan for dessert." Jenna smiles proudly while James chokes back the vomit.

"Is Carl in waiting in the car?" James asks as he throws his bag over his shoulder.

"Nooo. Carl didn't feel like leaving his telescope last night and I'm sure he's _still_ sitting there looking up at the sky." Jenna folds her arms and looks off to the side in silent rage.

After leaving the airport and drive home in a storm of questions about college and girls, James was ready to hole out in his room. They arrive at Jenna and Carl's house. It's a big house with a massive lot. James scans for the observatory and sees the large dome from the street. They park and James jumps out and grabs his bag. "Well mum, do you mind if I go lay down for a bit? Flights take a lot out of me."

"That's fine sweetheart, I'll wake you for dinner." Jenna smiles and squeezes his shoulder as he passes. "Your room is the first door on the left on the second floor. You'll find towels and anything else you may need on the counter in the bathroom, the second door on the left." James nods in response and heads into the house.

Jenna putters around in the front yard for a few minutes and walks inside the house. She sees the same dinner that she left out for Carl the night before and instantly feels the rage build up. "If you're not going to eat it, why did I bother to make it? I hate wasting food." She runs her fingers through her hair and in a huff she turns on her heal. She b-lines it for the observatory to give Carl a piece of her mind.

Carl is an older man, his graying hair flops over his glasses as he squints with one eye shut as he smashes his head to the telescope eye piece. Jenna slams the door open and stands there with her arms crossed and a death glare on her face. "Carl! You're carrot surprise has been on the table for nearly 8 hours. If you didn't want it in the first place why do you insist I make you food?! I can't take this anymore, I want a divorce."

Carl barely glances over his shoulder at her. "Jenna, I'm on to something big here. I don't know what it is, but it looks like something is burning up there. Go get my phonebook will yeah? Get my book, I'm gonna call those guys from NASA."

"Am I wearing sign that says Carl's slave?!" Jenna throws her arms in the air with rage.

"GO GET MY GOD DAMNED BOOK! GET THE BOOK! GET THE BOOK!" Carl repeats aggressively until Jenna just obeys him so he'll stop.

Jenna comes back with a scowl and the book. Carl riffles through until he finds the number he's looking for and pulls out his cell phone. Jenna stands and watches as he is connected to NASA officials and is put on hold. She crosses her arms and just glares at him as he gives the coordinates to his discover.

"Yes sir. Yes. Sir, I'm retired Navy, I understand confidentiality. Uh huh, yes." Carl looks at Jenna with a smirk. "One more thing! The one who finds her gets to name her right? Great, I want to name it after my wife Jenna." Carl looks over at Jenna, who is caught off guard by such a gesture and almost cracks a smile. Carl pauses and continues, "She's a vicious life-sucking bitch from which there is no escape." Jenna merely responds with a middle finger in his direction and walks out.

Jenna walks back into the house and collects some belongings before knocking on James' door. She pops her head in to see he's up and slightly unpacking. "Don't bother love, you and I are leaving. Pack your stuff, we're headed back to England…together."

"What? Mum I just got here…and what do you mean _we_?" James stands there confused and jet lagged.

"I'll explain on the way, let's get out of this hell hole." Jenna smiles and turns back out of his room.

XXXXX

Katie smiles tremendously as the breeze blows her hair back and the city air surrounds her face. She throws her hand up in the air to hail a cab and the several bags in her hand rustle in the wind. A cab pulls up and stops in front of her.

"We to ma'am?" The cab driver asks.

"Ugh," Katie turns her nose up. "Please don't call me ma'am. And please take me to the Financial district, I want to see Tiffany's!"

The cab driver nods and pulls away from the curb. He turns up the radio and stops with the traffic. Katie just catches a few words and turns her head to the front of the cab. "What happened?"

"There was an explosion in space, at 3:47AM this morning," The cab driver says and peeks back over his shoulder at Katie. His face changes from a smile to a frown when he looks at Katie now frightened expression. Within seconds a massive crash sends the cab drivers ducking behind the steering wheel.

"What the actual FUCK!?" Katie dives behind the drivers seat. "What is going on!?

"I'm sorry miss I don't know!" The driver frantically is dodging screaming people and pieces of flaming shrapnel. A huge explosion off a few blocks down sends a car flipping over onto another. Building are catching fire and windows are breaking. "Maybe you should get out miss!" The driver beginning to panic, "I don't think we're safe here on the road!"

"What?!" Katie shouts as a basketball sized flaming mound smashes into the sidewalk just feet from the cab. "Jesus Christ! Get us out of here!"

"I'm sorry miss, there is nowhere to go! It's a traffic jam and now it seems we're under attack of something." The driver looks over his shoulder in sympathy.

"I wanted to go shopping!" Katie huffs and crosses her arms. "It figures I travel halfway across the world to go shopping and the sky is freaking falling!" Katie rolls her eyes and watches as people flee cars and buildings. "Well, I'm getting out. I think I'll take my chances outside, thanks!" She throws the cab drivers a few bucks and opens the door, grabs her bags and scampers out, ducking under her bags. She drops one and stops to turn and look back, just as a rock the size of a Volkswagen smashes to the ground. It throws her back into a news stand and luckily she is not hurt. She shakes off the shock of what just happened and cries, "NO! Not my Saks Fifth Avenue bag! I loved that dress! Fuck." Katie peers down into the giant hole the explosion made into the sidewalk.

Katie collects herself and her bags and starts walking in the chaos. She decides that walking in her heals have an equal chance of killing her, and decides to duck into a pub for the time being. She takes a seat and the bartender addresses her.

"Uh, what can I get ya?" The older man says with a curious smile.

"Just a pint, if we going to die, a pint will at least help the pain." Katie smiles and rests her elbows on the counter. She digs in her purse and pulls out her phone and dials Emily's number while she waits for the bartender to bring her drink.

XXXXX

Emily's phone vibrates in her jeans pocket. Naomi's giggles keep Emily from hearing her phone ring. "So you never told me how you came to work for my dad?" Emily smiles as she feeds Naomi a grape as they lay on her bed.

"It's kind of a funny story." Naomi sits up and crosses her legs. "My mum actually planned for me to be a spy and work as a mole to take down oil companies from the inside. You know, learn their weaknesses and such." Naomi laughs. "It wasn't until I actually learned the job and found I loved it and was good at it. My mum…well, she had a fit."

"Yeah, I bet." Emily smirks. "So this was a year before I came along right?""Yup, you were finishing up at uni and I was learning to be a roughneck." Naomi smiles.

"Mmm and my dad was trying the whole gym thing. That's why he sent me to uni instead of right to work with him. He wanted me to have options unlike him. He loves this, but he was really excited to try something new. He did get an award on year, I think he has the certificate still hanging in his office." Emily laughs.

Naomi cracks up, "Ha! I can see him now! Drilling a whole new way. Always telling us to fully extend and stretch before and after work."

Emily giggles and smiles as she settles in Naomi's bed. "Naomi?" Naomi lays next to Emily and looks at her with a soft smile. "I want to tell you something, but you can't make fun of me, okay?"

"What's that Ems?" Naomi pushes the soft lock of hair that fell upon Emily's forehead.

"I actually came to work for my dad because of you." Emily ducks her head into the pillow.

"What? Really?" Naomi snorts with a smile. "How so?"

Emily rolls onto her stomach and rests her weight on her arms and giggles nervously, "I was visiting dad. I wanted to see what he left the gym for, how he worked, and where he lived. He flew me out for a few days to experience rig living and that's when I saw you."

"Haa wow. When was this?" Naomi rubs her forehead and giggles. "Did I meet you that day?

Well it was two years ago, pretty sure it was Friday, but the time differences confuse me." Emily smiles and buries her face into her hands to calm a nervous chuckle. "I just remember I was sitting in my dad's office. It was warm, and actually a beautiful day. He walked outside to talk to you and Cook, and JJ I think, and I saw you through the window." Emily smiles with the memory then frowns, turning her head to Naomi quickly, "Don't say what I think you're going to say! I was _not _stalking you!" Emily smiles. Naomi covers her mouth with her hand to hide the smile lurking. "Anyway, the sunlight hit your face when you laughed with Cook and your eyes were bluer than the sky…all I could do was stare at you. You were beautiful. You still are." Emily smiles warmly at Naomi and flips back over to her back with a sigh. "The thought of being in a gorgeous place working with a beautiful woman was too much to say no to."

Naomi smiles and rolls on her side to face Emily, "I wish I remembered this moment." Naomi nuzzles her head on Emily's shoulder. "I just remember when your dad announced you as his assistant." Naomi looks up at Emily and smiles, "You scared the shit out of me."

"_I _scared the shit out of _you_?" Emily laughs. "You joking right?" Emily rolls to meet Naomi face to face.

Naomi just smiles and nods, "I just had this feeling like you were the one person who could ruin my life." Emily cringes in response. "I mean, I knew from that moment that Emily Fitch was someone who I needed in my life…and I've spent the last 2 years stealing moments and exchanging smiles with you in hopes that one day you'd feel the same."

Emily smiles adoring, "Ah, so all this time _you've _been stalking me." She chuckles and leans closer to Naomi, "I feel the same." Emily's smile is met by Naomi's lips and a soft embrace.

XXXXX

**Hope you're still enjoying it! XD My birthday is tomorrow so I have some distractions, but hopefully I'll have an update soon! :) leave a review, tell me what you think! ;)  
xx Steph :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for the birthday wishes! I had a lovely day :) Happy to have a new chapter for you fancy readers. THANK you to those who've read, followed, favorited, and REVIEWED! I hope you all enjoy the next! xx**

Katie scoffs at James' voice mail message, "James! Jesus does anyone answer their phone anymore?" Katie pushes the 8th floor button on the hotel's elevator and looks up with a huff. "Hey, it's me. Look, if you hear anything on the news about an attack or something in New York City, I'm okay alright? I barely made it out alive! I felt like I was in the American Gladiators when they shoot the tennis balls out of those pressure guns, but the balls were flaming pieces of rock and stuff. Anyway, call me when you get this…love you bye." The elevator bings and the door opens. Katie steps out and heads to her room.

She opens the door and tosses her bags on the bed. Nervously, she peaks out the window and sees the post chaos in the distance. She shakes her head and shuts the curtains before picking up her phone again to try ringing Emily again. She dials the phone and paces while it rings. "Come on Ems…_come on. _Fuck. Hey Ems, did you get my previous message? Fuck's sake would you call me back? I'm kind of freaking out here…so yeah, call me back! Love you." She ends the call and rubs the bridge of her nose with a scrunched face. With a sigh she looks in the mirror and decides to take a shower.

XXXXX

"James honey, we're almost there. It's time to wake up," Jenna nudges James awake. He stirs and begins to open his eyes. "You slept through the entire flight honey, we're you tired?"

James snorts, "Mum, I had just been on an 8 hour flight before you suddenly said we were headed back…what do you think?" He rolls his eyes and sits up. "God I'm starving." James stretches and looks around for a flight attendant.

"Your phone made a noise earlier, I think you missed a call." Jenna says as she gathers her carry on belongings.

"So mum, _why_ again did we leave Carl?" James flops his tired head back on the seat. "I didn't even get a chance to see the giant telescope. That was the _one _thing I was looking forward to." James pouts and Jenna glares at him, "Aside from you mum." Jenna smiles sarcastically at him, knowing that wasn't exactly the case.

"You weren't missing anything there honey. Carl is obsessed with it, and quite frankly I'm glad you didn't get a chance, sorry." Jenna folds her hands in her lap and looks out the window as they descend.

"We just finished studying probability in Astronomy class. Did you know that when the dinosaurs walked the earth, a rock 6 miles wide crashed into the planet with the force of 10,000 nukes? It sent 300 tons of rock and dirt into the air, and it took 1,000 years for the sun to be able to penetrate it again. Isn't that crazy?" James looks wide eyed at his mother. "It happened before, it will happen again. It's just a question of when."

Jenna smiles, "That's lovely dear, but a little far fetched isn't it? I mean, how do we know that even happened? You're starting to sound like Carl, how about a subject change yeah?" Jenna sternly looks out the window as Heathrow comes into view.

XXXXX

Emily rolls over peacefully, kisses Naomi on the shoulder, and nuzzles into Naomi's back. Naomi stirs and smiles, "Mmmm. Morning."

Emily grins as she feels Naomi turn over to face her. "It certainly is good." Emily squirms closer to give Naomi a kiss.

Naomi smiles as she pushes a lock of red back behind Emily's ear, "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

Emily smirks and pulls the sheets over their naked bodies, "Everything happens for a reason and the exact moment it should. And besides, I have no problem making up for lost time." They both giggle and tangle their arms and legs as they kiss under the covers.

XXXXX

Cook slowly walks up to Rob who is shoving his face with scrambled eggs. "Cook! Gotta get some breakfast before it's all gone man! These eggs, I swear Thomo feeds like champions." Rob flashes Cook a massively toothy grin.

Cook smiles, "Yeah mate, Thomo is almost better at cooking than he his drilling." Cook sits down cautiously. "So Rob, I uh just found out something interesting…"

Rob looks up from his plate, "Yeah? What's that?"

"Number 2 chewed 180 feet last night." Cook grimaces up at Rob, bracing himself for Rob's reaction.

Rob calmly finishes the last of his eggs in silence. "Who do we have to thank for this?" Rob looks off to the ocean and takes a deep breath.

Cook huffs out and looks down at his dirt stained hands, "I'll give you two guesses, but you're only gonna need one."

Rob flings his plate off into the water like a Frisbee, "DAMN IT NAOMI!" Rob jumps up and immediately charges to Naomi's quarters. Cook stands and slowly follows scratching the back of his neck.

Rob kicks open the door to Naomi's room, "Naomi! Damn it Naomi wake your lazy ass up!"

Naomi and Emily freeze in fear as the cold air fills their happy love tent. Naomi jumps up and covers herself with the sheets. "Rob, what the fuck!? You know I sleep naked!"

Rob turns around and starts counting, "Onnne, twooo, thrrreeeeee…"

Naomi grabs a shirt and whips it over her head while Emily curls into a ball and tries to hide under the covers. Suddenly it dawns on Naomi as to why Rob is furiously invading her room. "Rob? Rob!" Naomi jumps out of bed. "Rob, if this is about number 2...I swear I was going to shut it down! But I swear it was sure thing! This time it really was!"

"Naomi! What did I tell you? MY RIG MY RULES! Damn it Naomi!" Rob slams the door against the wall in rage, and it crashes back into his shoulder which only makes him more angry.

Naomi sees the veins in his neck begin to bulge and she panics, "I'm sorry. I was a fool! I should've listened to you…I mean you're the man…do the Rob way, not the wrong way."

Rob looks around Naomi's room to see two wine glasses, one with red lipstick residue left on it. "Naomi?" Rob asks suspiciously. "How long have you worked for me?"

"Five years…" Naomi answers slowly.

Rob squints, "In five years, you've never apologized so quickly…" At this point, he sees a tendril of red slinking out from under Naomi's messed up bed covers.

"What? No, I mean…" Naomi stutters before Rob holds up his thumb and his pointer finger and closes them together. Naomi stands in a silent panic.

He pulls the corner of Naomi's comforter to reveal his half naked daughter. Robs eyes go wide and his jaw drops. "Emily?"

Emily laughs nervously, "Hi yeah dad." She pulls the covers back up to protect herself from Cook's lingering eyes.

"Emily." Rob says calmly. "Would you please go put some clothes on, Naomi and I have a lot to discuss. Naomi? How about you meet me outside, I'll be there is just a minute." Naomi looks over at Cook, who is just as terrified as she is, and then at Rob who storms out of her room.

Naomi looks over at Emily, who is frantically getting dressed, "Ems?"

Emily looks up at Naomi and bites her lip, "I'm okay, we're okay…but you better run. I've only seen my dad like that one time and it was right before him and my mum got divorced." Naomi throws some shoes on, ducks down to Emily and gives her a kiss before racing out the door in the opposite direction of Rob.

Rob steps over to his office and removes a BB gun and turns back. Cook stands in front of Rob, "Now Rob…let's take a minute to think things over here okay?" Rob just blows past Cook, forcing Cook to follow like a puppy.

Naomi is frantically running through out the rig. She hears Rob screaming her name in the distance as he loads his gun. "CHRIS! Chris!" Naomi pants as she gets closer to Chris who is working with a large wrench. "Chris man, Rob has finally gone off the deep end! If he comes this way, stop him!" Chris just stares at her in shock, and her wardrobe for she's running in a pair of boxers and an undershirt. "Chris!" Naomi looks over her shoulder and sees Rob getting closer, so she continues her mad dash.

"DAD! Stop this instant!" Emily, wearing only her underwear and a blanket wrapped around her, calls at Rob as he aims his gun for Naomi. "You are acting insane!"

Rob turns to Emily with a crazy smile, "Now honey, go get some clothes on and get out of the way!"

Emily huffs, "You can't control my life dad!" Emily crosses her arms, holding the blanket up. A breeze blows a few locks into her face, causing her to brush them to the side with her hand.

Rob grits his teeth, "Fine! Clothes! Now!" Emily rolls her eyes and turns back to her room, but not before she sees Rob has caught up with Naomi.

Rob takes a shot and Naomi ducks, "Jesus Christ!" Naomi runs away bent over in her boxers. Rob takes another shot and Naomi jumps, "Rob! Come ON!" Rob stands there are glares at his missing as Cook catches up as well. Naomi stands in front of him her blue eyes wide with fear, "Rob, now seriously…I love her."

Rob's eyes get wider, "Way wrong answer!" Rob shoots past Naomi and she ducks and screams. The BB bounces off several pipes and finally hits Naomi in the calf.

Cook lowers Rob's arm, "Whoa…okay it's getting real boss."

Naomi drops to the ground holding her leg, "What the actual FUCK ROB!?" Rob is still mad, but allows Cook to remove the gun from his hands as Emily races past them to Naomi's side.

"What is wrong with you dad?! You just can't go around shooting people on an oil rig!" Emily screams. "It's illegal and fucked up!"

"Awe come on, it's just a ricochet! It's just a BB, it's not like I shot her directly!" Rob whines, "And besides, I'm feeling a little insane right now anyway!"

Before any resolution can be made, an explosion erupts in hot oil, steam, and fire. Pipes crash to the ground and JJ and Chris yell from the derrick, "Rob! ROB!" More explosions send flames and pieces of machinery and piping to the ground.

Rob and Cook run to the derrick and try and control the oil flow. Rob directs people to their stations, "GET CAMPBELL UP HERE NOW!"

Naomi scrambles with her hurt leg up to the derrick. Together Rob, Cook, and Naomi regain control of the oil. Naomi sees the oil shoot upwards and celebrates, "Am I lucky or just a genius?!" Naomi shouts with excitement.

Sid screams, "Yeah baby! We struck it rich with Fitch!" Several cheers and hugs celebrate a glorious pay day.

Rob and Naomi lean against the derrick, covered in oil out of breath. Rob looks at Naomi, "Someone could have died…do you want that on your conscious? You're fired." Naomi stands in shock, her jaw dropped low.

Busy cleaning the rig, Cook notices the helicopter flying and shouts, "Pucker up! We've got clients!" Emily looks over and rolls her eyes and runs to her room to get clothes on.

Rob looks at Cook, "We aren't expecting clients today…" He looks at the helicopter, now landing on the rig.

Emily busts out of her room, now clothed, and joins Rob on the main level and decides to give Rob a piece of her mind. "You know what dad! Naomi is _my_ choice!"

Rob just turns to her and laughs, "She's not a choice love, she's a lack of options!"

"That's so not true!" Emily squeaks. "You _knew _how I felt about her! I told you the day I said I'd take the job!" Emily throws her hands up in frustration before her attention is drawn to the sudden company.

A slender man in uniform followed by three other men step off the helicopter. "Who's Rob Fitch?!"

"I'm Rob Fitch," Rob steps forward.

"Mr. Fitch, I'm General Blood, Commander of the Pacific Air Forces. I've been sent here by the Secretary of Defense on directs order from the President of the United States." Rob snorts in response. "It's a matter of urgent national and global security, I need you to get on that chopper right now, no questions asked.

Rob chuckles, "You must be joking? What does the President of the United States want with me?""Sir, that's classified and I'm dead serious about this." The general looks at Rob without a flinch.

Rob pauses, "Alright, I'll go but on one condition…my daughter has to come with me." Emily's eyes flash over to Rob. The general nods and two soldiers approach Emily and guide her by the arm.

"What!? What did I do? Let's me go!" Emily struggles while searching for Naomi.

Naomi sees Emily and runs up to her, "Emily! What's going on!?"

"I don't know Naoms…but I love you too!" Emily shouts as she is pushed on the helicopter.

Rob pops his head out of the helicopter and yells, "Cook! Get Naomi paid and off this rig!" Cook nods with a frown, as Naomi rolls her eyes and shakes her head with crossed arms.

XXXXX

Emily and Rob pull up in a police escort to the Houston, Texas NASA head quarters. Wearing matching blue-gray NASA jump suits, they exit the car.

"Welcome Mr. Fitch, Ms. Fitch. I'm Stonem, Tony Stonem. Thank you for coming on such short notice." Tony says holding out his hand. "I apologize for the…""We've been apologized to for the last 18 hours. What is this about?" Rob interrupts.

"Yes sir. Well I should speak to you in private." Tony says with a stern face.

"I don't keep secrets from my daughter, so whatever you have to say you can say it to her too. She's going to find out one way or another." Rob smiles.

"Very well, follow me." Tony says as he turns to head inside.

Tony leads them to a private room and sits them down, Emily looks at all the flashing screens and blinking lights with fascination. "We have a global situation. A rogue comet hit the asteroid belt that surrounds the planet, and is now sending shrapnel right for us. For the next 15 days, the Earth's in a shooting gallery. There is an asteroid the size of Texas headed directly for us at 22,00 miles an hour." Tony pauses to let Rob and Emily take in the situation. Tony clears his throat, "Even if the asteroid hits water, it's still hitting land. If it's a pacific impact, it will flash boil millions of gallons of sea water and slam into the ocean bedrock. It will cause a title wave 3 miles high traveling at 1,000 miles an hour, covering California and washing up in Denver. Japan's gone, Australia's wiped out. Half the world's population will be incinerated by the heat blast while the rest will freeze to death from nuclear winter." Emily reaches out her hand to Rob's and squeezes it tight. "Not a soul on earth can hide from it…and it's coming in 18 days, 431 hours, 15 minutes and 18 seconds."

Rob just stares at Tony. "So where do I come into the picture?"

"I've made 3 dozen research calls about deep core drilling and your name came up every time for being the best. We need you Mr. Fitch. We feel the only possible solution to save the planet is to fly out onto the asteroid and drill a hold to the center, drop some nukes, and get the hell out of there to remote detonate from a safe distance." Tony clears his throat. "You are the only reliable source we could fine on such short notice. Will you help?"

"You're asking my dad to save the world?" Emily croaks out and Rob just places his other hand on hers lovingly.

"What is your back up plan if I say no? Are we all just going to die?" Rob asks with shock.

"We have a team of astronauts who were planning to go to Mars and mine. They've only trained for a few months, but they'll have to do if you say no." Tony explains with a stern face.

"You know drilling is a science, it's an art. I'm a third generation driller, I've done it most my life…excluding my hiatus when I was running my award winning gym." Rob smiles a proud grin. "But I still haven't gotten it all figured out. I'm only the best because I work with the best. If I'm going to do this, I need my crew with me."

"So you'll help us then?" Tony asks with a smile.

Emily looks at her dad with worry, he smiles at her and pets her head. "I'm sorry love, I don't trust anyone else to do it." He looks at Tony and nods, "Yeah, I'm in. How many people do you need for this job?"

"We were planning to send 7 crew members with two pilots." Tony explains.

Emily takes a deep breath and let's this all sink in. She looks at Rob, "You know, it's going to take forever to gather everyone up. Once they get off the rig, they scatter to the winds." Rob nods in agreement. "Who are you thinking of taking?

Rob exhales while he thinks, "My best guys are Cook, Thomas, Sid, Chris, JJ…"

Emily shuts her eyes tight and whispers, "And Naomi." She puts her hands to her face and takes a deep breath. "I thought you said Naomi was fired. In the chopper you said she was reckless with the drill therefore she'll be reckless with my heart…and that you couldn't trust her."

"But you told me I could." Rob smiles slightly at his daughter and brushes away the tear that is now rolling down her cheek. "Me and Naomi got a problem. I think she reminds me a bit too much of your mum to be honest. She a strong worker, and I need her to do this with me."

Emily nods, "Well they better start finding everyone now, the clock is ticking."

XXXXX

Days pass of locating the scattered crew members. Thomas was picked up spinning job at a club, Cook from the bar of a casino, Sid and Chris from a strip club where Chris had popped three different kinds of pills, and JJ from his parents home. No one knows where Naomi is, and time is running out.

"Rob, I don't want to rush you or anything, but we need to find your last crewmate. Do you have any ideas where she maybe? Tony asks politely yet urgently.

Rob shrugs, "I honestly don't know."

"I may have an idea where…but you have to take me there with you/" Emily chimes in. Tony and Rob nod in unison.

XXXXX

Emily smiles as the helicopter hovers over a Greenpeace boat in the Southern Ocean, a place were commercial whaling is at its highest. The pilot radioed the boat and confirmed both a Gina and Naomi Campbell on board. With clearance to land, Emily instructed Rob to stay on the chopper.

Emily hops off and looks around for Naomi. "Emily!" A familiar, but not too familiar voice called. "Emily! What on Earth are you doing here?" Gina Campbell emerges from the crowd. "Darling do you recognize me? You and Naomi brought us wheat-free, dairy-free and sugar-free cookies a few years ago? When we were protesting your fathers oil company?" Gina chuckles at the irony.

"I'm so sorry Gina, it's been a long few days. How are you!?" Emily falls into Gina's warm embrace and giggles.

"I've been good, trying to put a stop to these whalers!" Gina calls out extra loud as if to say to any passing poacher. "Now, tell me. Are you here for Naomi? I heard what happened…" Gina pauses then smiles brightly. "You know once you started working there, she couldn't stop talking about you…and this was years ago."

Emily blushes and smiles, "Yeah well I am here to see her, but for two reasons. We need her help desperately, and well I miss her."

"Well, I'll show you to her then." Gina smiles and leads Emily down into the boat's living quarters. Emily follows Gina into a room to find Naomi sulking on her bed with her headphones on. Emily could hear the music buzzing from her ears, but couldn't make out the tune. Gina waves at Naomi and gets a smile in response. Then Gina dances and points in Emily's direction and Naomi rolls her eyes, not picking up what her mom is putting down.

Finally Emily just pulls a bud out of Naomi's ear, "Naomi?" Emily softly says.

Naomi jumps from the goose bumps that were caused by the husky voice. "Emily?! What? What are you doing here? HOW?" Naomi stutters and looks to Emily, then her mother, and back to Emily.

"It's a long story, but we need your help. Will you come with us and let me explain in the helicopter?" Emily smiles, happy to see her but exhausted from the situation.

Naomi looks at Emily, "Um, what exactly do you need me for. When you say we, you mean Rob and you?" Naomi scratches her head. "Rob fired me, why does he suddenly need my help?"

Emily reaches out and grabs her hand, "Please, just come now? We're don't have much time. By we, I mean everyone." Emily frowns.

Naomi looks confused at Emily and then Gina, "Well, okay…but Ems, you're kinda freaking me out. Let me just get my stuff together okay?"

Gina walks Emily out to the main deck, "Well love it was great seeing you again. Be safe with our girl okay? Don't be a stranger!" Gina then pulls Emily in for yet another hug.

Naomi joins them with her bag, "Well mum, it was a nice few days, thanks for having me." Naomi smiles and gives her mom a hug.

"Oh sweetie! Here." Gina gives Naomi a bumper sticker and tucks it in her bag's outer pocket. "I love you honey, be safe okay? Remember, one lentil at a time." Naomi smiles and takes Emily's hand.

"Okaaay Fitch, you came all this way now where is my kiss?" Naomi smirks.

Emily laughs and takes Naomi in her arms, passionately pressing her lips to Naomi's. "Naomi, my dad's in the helicopter, and something quite serious is going on. I just want you to know, that I really do love you…always remember that."

"I love you too…I have for a while now." Naomi smiles nervously. "Okay, well let's get this over with yeah? Come on." Naomi takes Emily's hand and they walk to the chopper to await their fate.

XXXXX

**Hahaha! Has everyone picked up on my silliness yet? XD Thanks again for reading! Let me know what you think! :P The button is pretty and right below...give it a push! :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you to all who read and reviewed! XD I appreciate it so much! :P Happy Friday to all...here we go!  
;) Steph xx**

Naomi stares off into the distance through the tiny helicopter window. Her face blank and numb, as the pain of everyone one and thing she loves disappearing in a blink of an eye hits her. She releases a shaky breath and wipes away a tear that escaped from her welling up eyes.

Emily sadly looks at her dad, who is gritting his teeth waiting for Naomi's decision. She cocks her head giving him a scolding expression, telling him to lighten up so Naomi can grasp the gravity of the situation. She then looks back at Naomi who is trying to compose herself. Naomi clears her throat. "Does everyone else know?" She looks over at Emily, then sneers over at Rob.

Emily looks at her dad then back at Naomi, "I think they were just picked up by government officials and brought to the NASA headquarters before being briefed."

Rob clears his throat, "Listen Naomi. This is really hard for me to say, but when I was asked to do this I knew I couldn't do it without my team." He grits his teeth some more, "As much as I hate to say this, I need you. I think you're an ass most of the time…but I can't do this without you. This is why we hunted you down and you're finding out what's going on before the rest of the gang." Rob looks at his hands and huffs, "So, will you help us?"

Naomi looks out the window again and breathes deeply, "Okay." She drops her head and then looks over at Emily, "I'll do it." She looks at Rob with a smiling smirk, "Let's save the world."

XXXXX

Naomi fiddles with her blue gray jumpsuit pockets as they walk into the headquarters, "Why do we have to wear these anyways? Do they make everyone wear these?"

Emily smiles and giggles, "I think you look rather fetching in yours." She smiles flirtatiously, "And yes, they do." Rob and Tony are waiting a few feet away and Emily looks at Naomi and smiles nervously, "I still can't believe this is happening…but I feel safer knowing you're here now." She kisses Naomi and leads her to Tony and her dad.

"Hello Emily, and you must be the secret weapon." Tony smiles, "Naomi, I'm Tony. I'm the NASA Project Director in charge of this operation. It's nice to meet you." Tony nods as he holds out his hand.

Naomi smiles as she takes it, "Ha...well I don't know about secret weapon, I'm no Fifth Element, but I'll do my best."

Tony smiles, "Well, we are lucky to have you, shall we? The rest are waiting in the conference room." A loud crash and a roar of noise and laughter comes from the room.

Rob laughs, "The boys are getting restless, we should get it before they destroy the place."

Rob, Emily, Naomi, and Tony walk towards a windowless room. Tony nods and turns the handle and reveals Chris, JJ, Sid, Thomas, and Cook all in matching blue gray jumpsuits. Cook is standing on a chair blocking the wads of paper being thrown at his head from JJ and Sid. Chris is sitting with his head in between his folded arms, while Thomas sits in his chair eating a doughnut, laughing at Cook.

Rob clears his throat. Tony smiles, "Gentlemen!" Everyone stops and looks at Tony. Cook jumps down and Naomi and Emily take their seats. "Now that everyone is here, let's get started."

Cook smiles, "What's up Rob? Did NASA find oil on Uranus man?" All the boys snort with laughter.

Rob laughs, "Nice one…but no. Guys, this is serious, listen to Tony." He folds his arms while he stands strongly next to Tony. Rob sees Chris with his head down and smacks the back of it, "Hey, pay attention boy!" Chris lifts his foggy head and looks up.

Tony nods, "You all have been brought here as a matter of global security."

"Hey man! You're English? Why are you here?" Sid interrupts.

Tony huffs and sharply says, "We don't have time for questions Sid. But to quickly answer your question, there is an international space program in which I transferred from England to the United States okay?" Sid slinks back in his chair embarrassed. "Now, to be abrupt…we called you because there is an asteroid the size of Texas headed directly for our planet. We need you all to land on that asteroid and drill a hole down to the center of it, drop nukes, and blow it apart in hopes that the pieces will miss Earth." Tony pauses for a moment, "It's that simple…but here's the clencher, we only have 15 days left. I'll step out and let you all think." Tony nods and steps out of the room.

Everyone's face is blank. Rob takes a moment before speaking, "So folks, you do have a choice in this matter. You can either stay and wait for that rock to kill everyone and thing on this planet…or you can come with me to try and stop it." He looks around the room, "Who's with me?"

Thomas smiles sadly, "I'm down for some moon walking Rob, I'm in." Rob nods and looks to Cook.

"Life's a gamble…I'm all in." Cook nods.

Rob looks to Sid, whom is pouting and fidgeting with his glasses. Sid looks at Cook and then at everyone else and whines, "Yeah, I'm in."

Rob looks at Naomi and Emily with a sad smile. Naomi nods, "I'm in." Emily looks at Naomi and grabs her hand under the table and squeezes it.

Rob looks to JJ, who is nervously twitching. Cook leans across the table, "JJ, it's okay man…you don't have to if you don't want to." JJ blinks a few times and licks his lips. "This is like true blue hero stuff right? Maybe I'll finally lose my virginity…I'm in." JJ smiles brightly.

Cook drops his jaw and cracks up, "Yeah maybe some space chick with three tits will give you some love man!" JJ glares at him and Cook laughs some more.

Rob looks at Chris next. Chris is sweating and looks dazed. "I…I don't feel so good man." Rob looks at Sid, knowing very well what antics they get into off the rig., and back to Chris. With a thump, Chris passes out and falls from his chair to the ground, smacking his head on the table in the process.

Rob lunges towards him, "Chris! Shit! Someone get some help!" Thomas runs to get help. Rob grabs Chris' head as he begins to seize, blood leaking from his nose and ears. "He's hemorrhaging! What did he take Sid!?"

Sid's jaw drops and his eyes go wide, appearing even bigger with his glasses. "I… I don't know! He took a lot of stuff at the strip club! You know Chris?! Fuck!" Sid runs over to Chris and drops to his knees. The remaining group stands and watches with worry.

Tony and Thomas fly into the room with a tall, thin, creepy looking man with Foster written on the name badge. He drops to his knees and says, "I'm a doctor!" Chris is convulsing and Sid is crying, "Give him some room!" The doctor orders Sid out of the way.

Sid steps back and watches in horror as Chris dies on the floor of the conference room. The doctor stands up, "I'm sorry. He's gone." Everyone stares in shock with the sudden event. "I'll need to make a few calls, if you don't mind if I excuse myself." Tony nods as the doctor leaves the room.

Tony looks at Rob with worry, "I don't mean in to be insensitive of the current situation, but is this going to affect the mission?"

Rob rubs his hands through his hair and huffs, "Chris was in charge of the computer systems that help us guide the drill and read its depth." Rob rubs his eyes, "Ems?"

Emily's eyes bug open, "What?!" She looks around in a panic. "You want _me_ to fill in for Chris?!"

Rob shrugs, "There isn't much time love."

Emily's jaw drops, "I…I haven't the slightest clue what to do!?" Naomi grabs her hand to try and calm her.

"Sweetie, you're a Fitch. It's in your blood. I'll show you, we'll all be here with you. You can do this." Rob walks over to her and places his hands on her shoulders.

Naomi smiles, "You can do this. You already know so much just from handling all Rob's paperwork and such."

Emily looks to the ceiling, "Fuck…okay. But dad, we need to call Katie. I haven't been able to call her and tell her anything. You know she was in that asteroid storm in NYC?"

Rob's face drops, "She was? Is she okay?"

Tony interrupts, "Okay, so are team is complete? We really need to get started on testing and training."

Cook speaks up, "Wait, are we going to get to tell people what we're doing? I mean, can't we say goodbye?"

Tony shakes his head, "I'm sorry Cook but no, it's classified." Everyone sadly looks at the table. "If we let you tell your loved ones what's going on, the probability that it would get out is rather high. When people find out, there will be riots, widespread chaos and panic…basically the worst parts of the Bible." Tony shrugs, "I'm sorry folks…but this is very serious. We need to get you guys ready for the flight and in the simulation rig as soon as possible."

XXXXX

Rob approaches Tony with a serious face, "Listen man, I know what you said in the meeting was true…but I need my other daughter here with me. My son is with his mother, so I feel better about that, but I can't have my other daughter out there alone. She needs to know what is going on with her dad, sister and…well, Cook. Call it special treatment if you want, but it's my one demand…please."

Tony looks at his watch, "Okay, we'll find her and get her here…but _I _need _you_ to get to your testing…now."

Rob smiles a large toothy smile, "You got it. Thank you."

XXXXX

Katie opens the door to the house with a smile. She pushes open the door and jumps when she sees both her mom and James sitting on the couch. "What the fuck!?" Katie drops her luggage to the floor. "What are _you _doing here?"

Jenna gets up with a tearful smile, "Katie, look at you…you're beautiful." She takes Katie in her arms and squeezes her tightly. Katie makes a face of question and disgust, "I was just on a plane for 8 hours…I am far from beautiful. And you never answered my question, what are you doing here?"

Jenna pulls back, "Well sweetie. James and I left. I left, I mean. I left Carl." She smiles and looks back at James who has an indifferent look on his face.

"What?" Katie looks at her mom, "You left Carl just like that? Then you came here?"

Jenna smiles, "Where else would I have gone?" She brushes a lock of hair off Katie's face and studies her lovingly.

"I don't know? Cyprus perhaps?" Katie shouts as she picks up her suitcases and storms into her room.

Jenna follows Katie to her room, "Do you want me to make you a cup of tea?" She leans in the doorframe.

Katie flops on the bed and looks at the ceiling, "Yeah okay…thanks mum." Jenna goes to leave before Katie speaks up, "I guess it _is _nice to see you mum." Jenna beams and leaves to go make the tea.

Katie lays back on her bed with a huff as James pops his head into her room. He looks back to see if Jenna is close and whispers, "So why are you home early? Is it because of that storm that happened?"

"Why are you whispering?" Katie sits up.

"Mum got mad that I was talking about that kind of stuff because Carl never shut up about space and asteroids and stuff. He has a huge obsession with that kind of stuff I guess." James steps in closer to Katie. "So why are you home now?"

Katie shrugs, "Because that damned asteroid shower nearly killed me and it took out all my favorite shops. At least I was able to do a little shopping before it hit." Katie looks at her luggage adoringly as she pets her purchased items.

James gives her a hug, "I'm glad you're home and in one piece."

Katie smiles and ruffles his hair, "Yeah, you too."

XXXXX

"You will all need to be given several tests, physical and mental, by our doctors. This is doctor John Foster, he will be administering your psychological evaluations. We will start the testing now. JJ, you're first with Dr. Foster." Tony explains as he leads the others to the waiting room.

JJ is escorted into the examining room, a worried smile on his face as the door shuts behind him. Cook laughs as the door locks and looks to Naomi, "I bet JJ is freaking out right now. Probably rambling a bunch of scientific facts and shit." Naomi giggles and Emily smiles. "This is unreal." Cook folds his arms and shakes his head.

Moments later the door busts open and JJ walks out mumbling, "I'm the normal one…I'm normal!" JJ then walks down the hallway, hunched over looking at his shoes.

Cook leans over to watch JJ walk away and laughs, "Locked on Double J! Locked on!" Cook shakes his head with a gaping smile.

"James Cook, you are next." A man in a white coat approaches Cook and shows him to the door. Emily and Naomi giggle as Cook suddenly looks nervous.

Thomas leans forward and smiles as the door shuts behind Cook, "Hey Naoms, what do you think they're going to ask us?"

"Dunno…but he cracked JJ." Naomi lifts her eyebrows and smirks.

Thomas smiles, "I'm glad you here." He looks at Emily, "You too Ems."

"Thanks Thommo, you're sweet. But I'm scared to death right now." Emily squeaks.

A loud slam comes from the room along with a muffled, "Yeah I can handle it! I'M COOK! I'M COOK!" The door flies open and the man in the white coat is restraining Cook's flailing arms and ducking from his fists. Thomas and Sid jump up to help calm Cook down while Emily, Naomi cringe from the sudden outburst.

Dr. Foster comes to the door, smoothing down his coat and adjusting his glasses, "Sid Jenkins, you're next." Sid looks down at Cook being escorted down the hallway and frowns as he walks into the room.

"Jesus." Naomi shakes her head, "What is going on in this room?" Naomi takes Emily's hand, "You okay?"

Emily nods, "Yeah…I just hope I can be trained enough in the time we have, so I'm not the cause of the end of the world." She shrugs and smiles softly at Naomi.

"I have faith in you Ems, you can do anything if you put your mind to it." Naomi smiles and kisses her pouting lips.

The door opens up and Sid's wiping away tears from under his glasses and Dr. Foster follows him out whispering, "It's not your fault Sid, he's an adult and made a bad decision that caused his death, you can't blame yourself." Sid sniffs and nods as he walks down the hall, Dr. Foster looks at his clip board, "Thomas Tomone, you're next."

Naomi puffs out the air in her cheeks as the door shuts behind Thomas. "Okay, I'm officially nervous. It seems like everyone leaves crying or broken. This guy must be testing our emotional weaknesses or something." She smiles at Emily, "You're my weakness."

Emily smiles, "Yeah, well you are my strength." She grins and pulls Naomi in for a passionate kiss.

The door clicks open, but the door is mainly closed. Thomas can be heard saying, "I'm just a little emotional right now, you guys are throwing all this stuff at me, can I get a hug from you or something?" The door opens quickly and Thomas walks out with his head down.

"Naomi Campbell." Naomi jumps at Foster's voice. "You're up, come on in." Naomi looks back at Emily with discomfort. Emily smiles and nods for her to go in. Naomi follows Foster in and the door shuts behind her.

Emily sits staring at the carpet when Rob sits next to her, "Hey love." Emily looks up and smiles. "I'm sorry to put you on the spot with this mission."

"It's okay dad, I'll do my best…I'm just scared that's all." Emily stretches her arms above her head and yawns, "This whole experience is rather exhausting."

"Yeah, but guess what? I made Tony bring Katie her, I don't want her to be alone through this. I know James is with his mum, and well, I just would like her to be here." Rob smiles sadly.

Emily smiles suspiciously, "But we can't tell her anything, what are you going to say to her? She's going to wonder whey she's being flown half way around the world to the NASA headquarters."

"Well she's in NYC right? That's not far, only a few hours." Rob smiles. "I know, I don't know what I'm going to tell her. I think I'm just going to tell her the truth." Rob shrugs and leans back in the chair.

"She's going to be so pissed. Especially if they put her in one of these jumpsuits." Emily giggles as she pulls at her jumpsuit.

"Rob? Do you have a moment?" Tony calls Rob over. HE nods and stands up, petting Emily's hair as he walks away. "We couldn't find Katie in NYC, would she have gone home?" Rob throws his hands in the air silently as to not alarm Emily a few feet away. "Okay, well we will look for her in England then." Rob gives him a thumbs up and a wink. Tony gestures for Rob to follow him and they walk off down the hall.

The door opens as fast as it shuts as Naomi shouts, "Yeah well, go fuck yourself!" Emily is wide eyed and trying to suppress a smile.

"You okay?" Emily asks hesitantly.

"Fucking wanker!" Naomi shouts in a huff as she storms down the hallway.

Dr. Foster pops his head out the door and looks down the hallway and back at Emily, "Last but not least, Ms. Fitch come in." Emily slowly gets up and walks into the room. She walks in, looking at the strange room with sharp, triangular points protruding off the walls and a low hanging light fixture is too bright for her eyes. "Take a seat Ms. Fitch," Foster says. She sits hesitantly and smiles. "I saved you for last because I hear you were just recently added to the mission as of an hour ago?" Emily nods. "How do you _feel _about that?"

"Scared…under qualified…um, and anxious about the pending apocalypse." She smiles with a nervous giggle.

"Well your crew seems to be of extremes Ms. Fitch. A mix of strong personalities in need of anger management and less confident, insecure people. Then there's a mix of those two like you and Mr. Tomone." Foster adjusts his glasses, "My job is to make sure you're stable enough to handle this mission. With you fellow mates, I was able to crack them in seconds; however, I am not getting the same vibe from you as I did them. You're strong. You know you're strong." Emily nods and smiles and Foster leans back in his chair. "Is there anything you wanted to discuss?" Emily shrugs and shakes her head. "Well, I guess we're done then. Good luck and thank you…for saving us in advance." Foster smiles and shakes her hand. Emily smiles and quickly excuses herself from the creepy room.

Emily walks down the hall which leads to a medical examining room. She is met by a medical assistant and given a gown to change in to. Emily rolls her eyes and huffs as she is lead to a changing room. Once changed, she is lead into the room which the other have already started their testing.

"Hey! Ems niiiice gown!" Cook hoots from a bed that he is sitting on and dangling his legs off. He swings them childishly as he has his blood drawn. "You're in for loads of fun girl!" Cook laughs and throws his head back.

Emily grimaces and looks around at her friends with tubes and monitors all hooked up to them. JJ is running and panting into a breathing apparatus. Naomi is getting an eye exam done. Sid is leaning forward with a pained expression on his face, which makes Emily not want to think what is happening. Her attention is brought to Thomas who is now yelling at a doctor.

"What do you mean doughnuts are not high in nutrition! High cholesterol? I'll give you high cholesterol!" Thomas jumps on the bed and rips his gown off, revealing his muscular body in leopard briefs, and begins dancing and cheering. The rest of the gang begin hooting and hollering as Thomas pulls his briefs down to reveal a little cheek.

Emily laughs as a doctor approaches her and takes her to a scale to be weighed. The nurse records Emily's weight on a chart and begins to ask her numerous health questions before showing her to the next station.

XXXXX

Tony sits in his office looking at his computer, checking scenarios and numbers. "Sir, the results are in." A chubby man throws a stack of charts down on his desk, all with "FAILED" stamped on the front. Tony looks up, "Failed? I don't care if they can't fix a freaking satellite or fly a shuttle, I just need to know that they can survive the trip!"

The chubby man shrugs and rolls his eyes, "Personally, I don't know how they survived the tests." He pulls out a stamp and with a thump, slams down the stamp of approval reading, "NASA APPROVED." He scuffs and walks away. "Hey! This group of misfits is going to say our lives, show a little respect!" Tony glares at the chubby man as he exits his office and smiles at the charts, "This group of misfits is going to save us."

XXXXX

**Thanks again for reading! I'm loving this so I'm writting like a crazy person...update should be soon :D Let me know what you think? :P have a lovely day! xx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's another one! Thanks again to ALL who are enjoying this! :P Sam, thanks AGAIN for the super sweet mention in A/N of your lovely story,"The Kindest of Kisses Break The Hardest of Hearts" :D For those who have not read it yet, I urge you to do so! Help her reach 150 reviews! :D it will brighten her day! Enjoy! :P**

"First thing's first! We got to get you guys used to the trip into space!" Tony yells as the wind blows his brown hair back outside the aircraft hangar. "In addition to flying the X-71 to that rock, these two will train you to deal with the mental and physical rigors of working in space… so you don't freak out on the asteroid! Any questions?! Good, let's move inside!"

The group walks into the hanger to find a two brunettes, one tall male and one short female. As the herd gets closer, the tall man whispers to the short female and shakes his head in disgust, "Talk about the wrong stuff…" The short female snickers as the team steps up.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Colonel Effy Stonem and Colonel Freddie Mclair. You will listen to everything they have to say…got it?" Tony lifts his eyebrow and steps off to the side. "JJ! Can I have a word?"

JJ freezes and looks towards Tony and smiles politely, while nodding a few times. "Yes sir, how can I help you?" JJ bounces towards Tony, leaving Sid, Cook, Naomi, Rob, Emily, and Thomas just staring at Effy and Freddie.

"So Rob and I were talking and he mentioned that you're quite a wiz with numbers." Tony leans in with a whisper. "We are going to put you in charge of the nukes, how do you feel about that?" JJ's eyes go wide with power and excitement as he looks over his shoulder at Rob, who is nodding proudly at him. "Now this is extremely important, without the nukes, drilling that hole is pointless… along with this mission. Can you handle it?" JJ clears his throat and nods. "Okay, come with me Munitions Specialist Jones." Tony pats JJ on the shoulder and smiles as he leads JJ off to another location.

"Right! So as Tony said, I'm Colonel Elizabeth Stonem, and today Colonel Mclair and I are going to give you a taste of what's to come." Effy nods at Freddie.

"Yes, your space flight's gonna be a brutal assault on your sense. We're gonna be suckin' your eyes into the back of your head." Freddie smirks evilly.

Effy grins and lifts her eyebrows, "I'm gonna twist ya, I'm gonna flip ya." Cook snorts with perversion and smiles at Effy. She glares at him and smirks again, "Frap your body till your bones hurt." This only enhances Cook's laughter. "When you squeal, I'm just gonna go faster and harder."

Cook throws his hands in the air, "Me first!" Cook, rather amused with himself, throws his head back with laughter and grabs his belly.

Freddie gives Cook an evil glare, "Look mate, we have 12 days." Freddie shakes his head, "This is about the sorriest group of people I've seen in all my entire military career…12 days is not even a _fraction_ of time that we need to train you. So shut up and pay attention!" Cook's smile fades as he clears his throat and contains himself.

"Right, so behind me is your gear, let's get suited up and in the air." She looks at her clipboard, "Campbell, you're with me, let's move." Naomi's eyes bug and she looks at Emily and back at Effy as she walks towards the gear table.

"Fuck's sake," Naomi mumbles as she tucks a white helmet under her arm, the oxygen mask hitting her thigh. Naomi looks at Effy and shyly smiles, "Okay now, go easy on me…it's my first time."

Effy looks at Naomi and cocks her head, "I'm never gentle…let's be a good role _model_ and get a move on." Naomi rolls her eyes mumbles to herself as she follows Effy to the jet.

"Cook!" Freddie calls out with a smirk, "You're with me son." Cook laughs and walks towards the table to get his helmet.

"See you pussies later yeah!?" Cook laughs some more as Freddie shakes his head with a smirk. They walk to the jet and stop so Freddie can show Cook how to get in. "Okay dog, here's the thing." Cook looks around, "I have a slight fear of flying yeah? So can you take it down a notch or two mate?" Cook flashes his best innocent grin at Freddie.

"Yeah _dog_, what ever you say _mate_." Freddie rolls his eyes as he fastens his oxygen mask to his helmet.

Both Cook and Naomi stumble into their jets, as they taxi to the runway, the glass doors begin to shut. Emily watches as Naomi cruises by and waves excitedly with both hands. Naomi waves with one as she adjusts her mask with the other. Cook looks cocky with a thumb up as they pass the group until the door shuts, then he looks like he's going to be sick before the jet even takes off.

Tony approaches Sid, Emily, Thomas, and Rob while walking with JJ. "Well folks, we don't have to time wait, so I brought in some reinforcement NASA pilots. Everyone, get your helmets on because you're going up now in just a few minutes." The extra five pilots arrive and walk towards the remaining group. "Alright, let's move!"

Everyone takes a helmet and is escorted by a NASA pilot to a jet. Emily is adjusting her helmet and accidentally pushes a button. Suddenly she can hear talking an screaming. The glass begins to lower and her heart begins to race, "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

"Yes, are you alright?" The pilot looks back and nods.

"Oh, I can hear other people? Is that normal?" Emily smiles nervously.

"It is an optional setting on the helmets, you can choose to hear other pilots in a 50 mile radius or not. As pilots we have to have this setting on, but in this case where there is a lot of screaming and profanity, we can choose not to use it." The pilot smiles, "But we're about to take off, so brace yourself."

Emily's eyes go wide as the glass clicks in and the engines begin to roar. She hears Naomi screaming, "Jesus Christ!" Emily's heart is pounding and boom, her body is slammed to the back of her seat. She manages to turn her eyes to the side and look out the glass as the ground disappears in seconds.

The pilot takes them straight up, with Thomas swearing in French fueling her fear, she shuts her eyes and clenches her fists. The pilot whips them to the right, causing her head to jerk to the left. Sid is crying like a baby in Emily's ears. They dip down at 90 degrees and Emily feels her stomach in her ears. With the force pushing her cheeks back, the smile is already on her face when she hears Cook begging to stop and screaming obscenities.

A sharp turn to the left and Emily feels a tear roll out of her eye and shoot into her ear. She cringes at the sensation accompanied by JJ's screaming, "OH MY GIDDY GIDDY GIDDY GIDDY AUUUUUUNT!"

The pilot rolls them in three complete circles and Emily grips onto her seat. She clenches her teeth and holds what breath she can at this speed. Once straightened out, she hears her father yell, "This ride is more fierce than my marriage of 20 years!"

The pilot comes up to another jet on her right and gets dangerously close, so close that Emily can actually see Sid vomiting all over the cock pit. The jet jolts to the left and down before Emily can get more grossed out. With in a minute Emily sees the ground returning and smiles when she knows the ride is done. She laughs when she hears Sid apologize for the rib chunks on the pilot's dashboard. Emily even hears Cook thank God he's on solid ground. But the best thing she hears is Naomi compare the ride to their adventures in bed together. At this point she is happy that her father could not hear that comment. The jet lands and comes to a stop as the glass opens. Emily laughs as she hops out, seeing everyone else weak and leaning on each other as they go back to the hangar. She hangs around the jet to admire the machine and sees her dad approaching.

Rob comes up to Emily and smiles, "Well that was quite a ride huh love?" He removes his helmet and tucks it under his arm, "How did everyone else do?" Emily laughs as she takes her helmet off and points at JJ tucked in a rocking ball, Naomi sitting against the wall with her knees tucked under her chin, Cook sprawled face down on the ground, Thomas sitting on a bench with his head between his knees, and Sid walking out to the jet with cleaner and some towels to clean up his mess. Emily laughs even harder when she see the pilots all having a bagel and coffee, completely unaffected by the flight.

XXXXX

The door bell rings and Jenna comes to answer it, shocked when she see the two government officials standing at her door. She opens the door, "Can I help you?"

"Katie Fitch?" One of the officers asks.

"No, Katie is sleeping, I'm her mother. What do you want?" Jenna puts one hand on her hip.

"Ma'am this is matter of global security, we need Katie Fitch to come with us now." The official says.

"No, she is not going anywhere with you!" Jenna argues.

"Ma'am Ms. Fitch has been requested by her father." The official caves and spills a little information under the famous Jenna glare.

"What does Rob need with Katie that is so important that you two are here to get her?" Jenna turns to look behind her, "What has he gotten himself into?"

"Ma'am that's classified, but we need to take Ms. Fitch." The officer shrugs.

"Not without me then. I'm coming too, and so is my son. That is the only way you are leaving with any Fitches." Jenna turns her nose up at the officers. One officer steps to the side and pulls out his cell phone.

Moments later after Jenna and the remaining officer had their staring contest, the other officer returns. "Okay, Stonem said take them all and get a move on."

Jenna is shocked that they called her bluff and is now a bit shaken. She steps out of the door way and the officers follow her into the house. "I will have to wake up the kids, we've all traveled from the States in the past 24-hours."

"We know ma'am, we've been tracking you." One officer smiles, "We must hurry ma'am, I'm sorry to rush you."

Jenna grabs some things and throws them into her still packed bag from a day prior. "Okay, let me wake Katie and James, but I must worn you…Katie is not the most pleasant when woken up suddenly."

Jenna pops into James' room, "James honey. I'm sorry but I need you to wake up." James stirs and removes the pillow from under his head and slams it on top of his head and groans. "I'll give you five minutes mister, but I'll be back. Something has come up and we have to leave again."

"Again!?" James' voice is muffled under the pillow, "Fuckin' hell!"

Jenna walks into Katie's room and takes a deep breath before stepping into her room, "Katie sweetheart, you need to get up." She places her hand on Katie's shoulder and squeezes. "Katie?" Katie grunts and shrugs off her mom's hand. "Now Katie, we have to leave. Something has come up, I need you to wake up."

"Whhhhyyyyy?" Katie whines as she rolls only her back with a huff. "I just got home, why the hell do I have to leave again?"

"You're father has requested that you go to wherever he his…wherever that may be." Jenna circles her palm on Katie's back.

"Hmmm, perhaps that's why Emily never called me back, her and dad got arrested and they need bail money." Katie buries her head into her pillow.

"I think it may be more serious than that honey, there are two government officials standing in the living room right now. We have to go with them, they said it was a matter of global security." Jenna shrugs.

Katie grumbles and rubs her eyes, "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know honey, but we have to leave very shortly." Jenna stands and waits for Katie to get up before leaving her room.

Katie throws all her bedding off the bed and stomps out of her room and down the steps "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WE HAVE TO FLY BACK TO THE STATES NOW?!" Katie storms into the living room, surprising the two officers, and throws her hands on her hips. "I'm Katie Fuckin' Fitch! What the hell do you want!?"

XXXXX

Effy presses play on the DVD player and a puffy, white character with a tinted black plate on the head hops around on the screen. "Neil Armstrong, 1969, bouncing on the moon." She scans the group before her, "He's up there bouncing because there's less gravity up there than on Earth. This will be similar to the asteroid so pay attention." She points to the screen and folds her arms in front of her chest. "If something gets launched off that asteroid with enough force, it's gonna keep going right into outer space."

JJ smirks and whispers to Thomas, "Is it just me? Or is Colonel Stonem really hot?"

Thomas nods and smiles, "Oui." Cook looks over a waggles his eyebrows at both JJ and Thomas.

Effy clears her throat, "Directional Accelerant Thrusters!" The sudden volume change makes everyone look at her. "These devices will provide gravity for you, in other words, no bouncing. These thrusters…" Cook snorts with Thomas and JJ over how he like to thrust and Effy stops and charges towards them. "Boys! Do we have a problem?" They all stop talking and stare at her, "Because I'm trying to describe to you how these D.A.T.s keep your ass on the ground!" Cook cracks a smile and Effy gets in his face, "So that if I were to kick you in the balls and you don't know how to work them, what happens to you?!" Cook smirks and gives her a sexual smirk.

JJ speaks up before Cook can respond with a dirty comment, "He floats away?"

Effy rolls her eyes, looks at JJ and then back at Cook. "Exactly."

Cook smiles, "When do we start training for that?" Effy shakes her head and walks away.

"You all have 30 seconds to put your helmets on and the oxygen will be sucked out of this vacuum. Once that happens, you will know what it's like to be in space…GO!" Effy walks out of the vacuum with the other tech officers and the door shuts behind them.

The controller speaks, "Depressurizing in 30...29...28.." The group scrambles to put their gear on and prepare for weightlessness.

Effy and Freddie watch from a room above as the group hoots and hollers in the zero gravity. "This is ridiculous," Freddie shakes his head and mumbles to himself, watching them float around and bounce off each other like bumper cars.

XXXXX

"Okay everyone, listen up." Tony commands. "We have 6 days!" Tony walks over to a model and clears his throat. "This is your flight plan. You will be taking off Tuesday evening at 6:30pm, 67 minutes later you will dock with the International Space Station to meet with Astronaut Pandora Moon. Now she's been up there a few years in solitude so be nice to her. She's quite literally the spaciest space cadet I've ever met." Tony smiles, "I'm sure she'll tell you all about why she wanted to be an astronaut, with a last name like Moon and all. Anyway, you will lock and dock with the station and refuel your shuttle with your fuel, liquid O2. Once fueled, you'll release and take a 60-hour trip towards the moon." Tony pauses to make sure everyone is following, "We have one shot at landing on this rock, right when the asteroid passes by the moon. With the use of your thrusters and lunar gravity, you will sling shot yourselves around the moon, coming up behind the asteroid. This will be upward of 6Gs… just so you know a typical person can handle 5Gs before losing consciousness, you experience around 4 in your jet flights. You suits are equipped to handle high G-force and will help you take more Gs, so don't be too scared. You'll be moving at 22,000 miles an hour coming around behind the asteroid, where we're hoping that the tail of debris will be cleared by the Moon's gravity. The asteroid is big, dense, and will have some gravity of its own, but use your thrusters regardless. The Armadillo, the vehicle that you will get to and from the shuttle in, also has thrusters to create gravity." Tony pauses again to make sure everyone is following. "You have 8 hours to drill 800 feet, drop the nukes, and get out of there. You will be remote detonating the nuke before the asteroid passes the Zero Barrier." Tony points to a simulation on a computer screen. "The remaining pieces of rock should be deflected enough to pass by us. If not detonated before the zero barrier…game's over." Tony frowns at the simulation on the screen of the rock pieces taking out Earth.

Sid raises his hand, "So say we do land on this thing…what will it look like?"

Tony shrugs, "200 degrees in the sunlight, minus 200 degrees in the shade." Tony looks at the shocked faces before him and continues, "Canyons of razor-sharp rock, unpredictable gravitational conditions, unexpected eruptions…things like that."

Sid fidgets with his glasses, "Okay so…the scariest environment imaginable. Thanks."

Tony smiles, "Any other questions?" He looks around as Cook grins and raises his hand, "Yes Cook?"

"You and Colonel Stonem…are you related?" Cook leans forward in his chair.

Tony rolls his eyes, "Yes, I was waiting for this question. She is my sister, who got into the same program after I transferred. She and Colonel Mclair were recruited for a mission to Mars before the asteroid came to be, any thing else?" Tony smiles impatiently at the group.

Sid speaks up, "Why aren't you an astronaut?"

Tony huffs, "Well now, if we had time for my life story Sid, I'd tell you. Are there any relevant questions to the mission? No? Great, you all need to get to the weightless environmental training facility."

"What's that?" Cook asks as they all get up from their seats.

"Basically a pool about 30 feet deep. It will help you get your bearings in zero gravity versus floating around like you guys did earlier.

XXXXX

After some practice in the pool, the gang is sent out to the Armadillo Test Site somewhere near Houston out in the desert plains. "Okay! You all need to come familiar with how to drive the Armadillo in the case of an emergency!" Tony yells. "So make sure you all take turns! Remember, this vehicle is meant for space, so take it easy out on this terrain."

"Fuck's sake! The steering wheel is on the left side?! That's fucking weird!" Naomi whines, as she hops in the drivers seat.

Tony pops his head in, "What's even weirder is how they drive on the right side here…I nearly caused five accidents my first year here." He winks as he removes his head and pats the Armadillo as he walks away.

Naomi presses the clutch and kicks the Armadillo into gear. With a jerk, Naomi and Emily move forward and Naomi looks over at Emily and smiles, "Where to ma'am?" The sun shining on her face makes her squint and the breeze from the moving vehicle blows her fringe off to the side.

Emily throws her arms in the air and laughs, "I can think of a few places, but an asteroid in outer space is not one of them." Naomi pulls a gear and turns sharply, causing them to fishtail and grind to a halt. Emily grins and moves closer to Naomi's lips, "Now this is more like it." Naomi grins as Emily cups her face and gently kisses her.

They continue to kiss in the sunshine before rudely interrupted by the crunch sound of the intercom and Cook's voice. "Oi! Naomikins! Stop snogging and get back here! We all need a chance…and if Ems here wants to snog us all, I'm sure no one would argue."

Naomi rolls her eyes and grabs the radio, "Shut up tosser! We will be back momentarily!" Naomi smiles and pulls Emily in for just a few more moments alone.

Another crunch and Naomi rolls her eyes and grabs the radio, "Yeah! Coming!"

Some giggles and Cook's voice returns, "Yeah, we figured."

"Fuck off Cook!" Naomi smiles as she puts the Armadillo back in motion and heads back to the others.

XXXXX

"Underwater Simulation is key to this mission. You will get practice with the equipment at zero gravity and the computer will play out situations for you. Everyone get you gear on and let's get to work!" Tony's voice echoes in the pool.

The group get their suits on and get into position. Tony steps into the control room to observe their work. The team gets started with no problems. Emily is a little anxious, with what little training she has received, she's doing well, but she still feels uneasy.

"200 feet Naoms," Emily says while watching her equipment.

"Watch the R.P.M.s Naomi, we're already up to 8,000." Thomas says to Naomi in a soothing voice.

"She can handle it, I know she can. I got this." Naomi confidently says as she moves a gear..

Tony whispers into the controller's ear, "Let's simulate a gas pocket at 240 feet and iron ferrite at 300 feet." The controller nods and enters the information into the computer.

"Naomi, watch the time." Rob mentions as he oversees everyone's actions.

"More torque!" Naomi hollers to Sid, Rob looks at Naomi and shakes his head.

"Slow it down Naomi!" Rob hollers, as Naomi is getting a little too aggressive with the drill.

"She can handle it! I'm taking it to 11,000!" Naomi changes a gear confidently.

"Naomi, our pipe is long. Let's back down the R.P.M.s to 8,000 okay, I don't want to blow this transmission." Rob calmly says after taking some breaths and counting to ten.

"We don't have time! We need more power!" Naomi counteracts. "She's strong!"

"We have plenty of time! What we don't have time for is a blown transmission! Take her down!" Rob hollers from his post. "Damnit Naomi, why won't you listen to me?! You're gonna snap the pipe!"

The computer throws the gas pocket and the transmission is blown. Naomi slams her fists on the controls and throws a tantrum. "The computer is wrong! The rig can handle it! You know it can Rob!"

Rob shakes his head and gestures to Tony to take them up. Naomi reaches the top angry and cursing up a storm. Rob joins her and confronts her, "What is _wrong_ with you!? Do you want to go home? Is that it?"

"No that's not it! I just knew that the rig could handle it! I knew I was right, I felt it in my gut!" Naomi gets back in Rob's face. "We were doing the right thing!"

"SHUT UP!" Rob screams in Naomi's face. She freezes and her jaw drops. Rob pauses and calms himself, "Listen Naomi, those people up there in that control booth…" Rob points up in their direction. "They have _no _tolerance for hot doggin', showing off, gut instinct crap!"

Naomi storms off, taking her suit off as she walks away. Emily gets to the surface and does the same and chases after her. Rob heads up to see Tony. "They need a break, they're ready to snap." Rob explains to Tony in a huff.

"We can't do that Rob, we only have 2 days left!" Tony shrugs. "And if one of them talks, we can get in serious trouble."

"They won't talk, but they do need a break! Don't you have family you'd like to see, you know hang out with you sister before we leave. We need a chance to say good bye if this doesn't end well." Rob shakes his head. "Please, just a day off…that's all I'm asking for."

XXXXX

**Thanks again for reading, hope to have an update soon... ;) tell me what you think so far by hitting that shiny blue box :D Have a lovely day/night!  
Steph xx**


	6. Chapter 6

**We meet again :D Hello! I had a few distractions this weekend...NOT THAT I CONSIDER SEEING EVANESCENCE A BAD DISTRACTION ;) I drop everything for Amy Lee :P Any who, here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy it and THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE FOR READING AND REVIEWING AND SHARING THE LOVE! :D you all are delicious cup cakes, sweet and lovely, loaded with fabulous sprinkles! :D Forgive me, I'm hungry ;) xoxox**

**YO I DON'T OWN SKINS! But I really do miss it...come on Season 7! Whohoo! XD**

Tony hangs up the phone and rubs his tired eyes. Rob comes into the doorway and knocks on the open door. Tony looks up and smiles, "Hey Rob, come on in." Rob smiles and enters as Tony clears his throat. "I just wanted to let you know that your daughter has arrived…" Rob flashes a bright smile but before he can verbally respond, Tony continues speaking. "Although, there is one thing Rob…it seems as though there was a situation in Bristol and your wife and son have joined us as well."

Rob's eyes go wide as his jaw drops, "What?! First off, _ex-_wife, and James is here too?! Well that's GREAT!" Rob claps his hands to together and looks around excitedly.

Tony laughs and shakes his head, "Well, your ex-wife managed to scare the officers enough to call for clearance for her and your son. The problem is the same as letting your crew off for a day, NO ONE can talk of this mission, you hear? It is imperative. I need total cooperation, okay?"

Rob nods, "I completely understand. Thank you again for the precious time off before this huge mission. I think it will really help everyone clear their heads. I can't wait to notify everyone." Rob grins, "So where is the rest of my family now?"

Tony exhales, "Well from the sounds of it, they are in conference room B…and either your ex or daughter is not happy." Tony smiles and lifts his eyebrows as he turns back towards his computer screen. Rob smiles and turns out of the office. As he rounds the corner he can already hear a commotion coming from the room in the distance. He smiles as he picks up his pace.

"There is _no_ way I'm wearing _that_!" A muffled Katie is heard from the door. Rob turns the knob and knocks on the door as he opens it. "DAD!" Katie turns and jumps up from her seat. A defeated NASA official stands holding a blue-gray jumpsuit over his arm. Katie runs over to Rob and throws her arms around him. "I missed you…and why the _hell_ are we here? What's going on? And where's Emily?"

Rob kisses Katie on the cheek as he sees Jenna looking at him. He lowers his arms from Katie and whispers in her ear, "She's here love, you'll see her soon." Rob looks at Jenna, "Hello Jenna, nice of you to join us."

Jenna folds her arms, "What is going on Rob, we've been flown half way across the world and thrown in this tiny room…plus, these outfits and security guards? What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Haha! I think I look quite good in this? Brings out my eyes, yeah?" James says as he enters the conference room's open door. "Hey! Dad!" James smiles and wraps his arms around Rob.

"Awe, how are you son? Being good yeah?" Rob gives his son and kisses him on the temple. "You've gotten rather tall and the naughty bar has done you well I see." Rob smiles as he pats James' shoulders. "Okay, okay. Let's get this done, can you all have a seat? Rob turns around to shut the door , and joins the rest at the large table. All are staring at Rob impatiently and he smiles nervously. "I've been asked to do something by the United States government." Rob looks at Jenna, "It's big, something that will make you proud to be a Fitch." Rob looks down at his hands and takes a deep breath. "The thing is, you can't speak a word of this to another soul outside of this campus. There is a global situation, an asteroid has been found on direct course with Earth. I've been asked to take my team out to it, drill into it, and blow it to bits." Rob waits for a reaction from his family.

Katie laughs, "You're kidding right?" She looks at her mom, "Ha ha, very funny dad." Rob smiles sadly at her. Her jaw drops and her eyes go wide, "You're serious?" Tears begin to well up in her eyes and she looks at James. "That thing in New York then?

James looks at Rob, "I _knew_ it!" James looks at Jenna, "I told you it was an asteroid storm! I didn't know there was on headed straight for us, but I was right!" James smiles proudly.

Jenna looks down at her fingers, "Rob. What do you mean go out to it?" She looks at Rob with concern.

Rob sighs, 'Well. This is why we're at NASA. My team and I are flying a space shuttle out to catch the asteroid as it passes the moon. We have one shot to land on the asteroid, drill, and try to stop this thing."

"And if you don't?" Jenna breathes out. Rob just looks at Jenna and shakes his slightly. Jenna drops her head, rubbing her temple with a free hand, and lets out a sob. "This can't be happening." James and Katie pick up what their dad is telling them nonverbally and look at each other in shock.

Katie sniffs and wipes away a tear, "Where does Emily come into this dad? Why is she here with you?"

Rob runs his hand through his hair, "I originally just took her with me when the government came for me. Then we lost Chris and…" Rob takes a shaky breath. "She's the only one who knows enough about the business to fill in with such short notice."

"ROB!" Jenna screams. "It's one thing for_ you_ to be going up there, but Emily too!?"

James is silent, Jenna is fuming, and Katie is in tears. Rob rubs his neck and sighs, "I know it's a lot to take in and I'm sorry. But I haven't told you the worse part yet…" Everyone looks at him numbly. "We launch in 24 hours."

XXXXX

Tony stands in front of JJ, Sid, Thomas, Cook, Emily, and Naomi in conference room A. "You all have been cleared to leave the premises for the next 10 hours…enjoy your time, and remember this mission is confidential." Tony smiles, "This is the last time you'll see me until after the mission, so good luck with the launch in Florida tomorrow evening…and folks? Thank you in advance."

JJ, Sid, Cook, and Thomas look at each other and chant, "BEER!" They all race each other to the door and shove one another through the doorway.

Naomi smiles as she traces her fingertip down Emily's wrist towards her hand. "Did you want to go celebrate our future journey to the moon and back with me?

Emily smiles as she tangles her fingers into Naomi's hand, "Definitely, but first I'd like you to meet my sister."

Naomi smiles, "I'd love to, but how far away is she? We only have 10 hours." Naomi laughs.

Emily opens her mouth to say something when Cook flies back through the door, "You ladies coming or what!?" Naomi and Emily stare at him in surprise. "Awwwe come on your muff monkeys! It's our last Earth hurrah, you have to come! We're in Texas! Let's go a rodeo or ride a bull or something!"

"We'll think about it okay?" Emily smiles as they all walk out of the room just as Rob opens the door to the room next door. Emily stops and smiles as Katie's voice flows from the doorway. "Katie!" Emily yells as she steps towards the door. Katie appears and Emily throws herself at her, squeezing the breath from Katie's lungs.

"Now _that_ ladies and gentlemen, is a Fitch Hug!" Rob smiles as he wraps his arms around both girls and crushes them with his might.

Katie begins to sob in Emily and Rob's arms, "It's okay Kay, we're going to be okay. We're all going to be okay." Katie sniffs, trying to compose herself. She wipes her nose and eyes as Rob releases the girls and Emily lightens her grip.

Cook, who was busy chatting about where to party with Naomi, stops mid-sentence and stares at Katie. "Well are you a sight for sore eyes." He smiles sweetly, and Naomi smirks as she sees a tear form in his left eye.

Naomi looks at the untangled Fitches and finally sees Emily's sister in full view. She tries not to stare but can't help compare Emily to her twin. Emily smiles and walks back to Naomi and Cook, taking Katie by the hand. Katie looks down at her feet and bites her lip to hold back the smile on her face, "Hey Cook. It's nice to see you."

Cook grins ear to ear, "That's a girl, come give the Cookie Monster some love yeah?" Cook holds open his arms and Katie giggles her way into them."

Emily laughs at the tough girl front dissolve once she is around Cook. Emily clears her throat as she smiles at Naomi, "Katie?" Katie pulls back from her hug and smiles at Cook before looking at Emily. "I want you to meet Naomi Campbell, my girlfriend."

Katie's smile widens and her eyes sparkle, "Oh! Naomi! Hi!" Katie pulls Naomi in for a hug, "I've heard _all_ about you blondie." Katie winks at Naomi as she pulls back from the hug. "It's great to meet you."

Naomi smiles nervously, "Yeah, well it's great to meet you too."

"So where is this end of the world party happening?" Katie smiles half seriously as Emily gives her a look. "I know, I know. I'm not talking! I just feel a drink will help us all cope with the news okay?"

XXXXX

JJ, Thomas, and Sid find a local bar and bust through the doors in a fit a laughter. JJ and Sid instantly challenge each other to a game of darts while Thomas heads to the bar to order the first round. Thomas returns with three glasses and a pitcher of beer and sets them on the table. He rolls his eyes as JJ calmly responds to Sid, who is becoming more animated by the second about how darts is not about mathematics, but skill. Thomas fills and places a glass in front of each and clears his throat, "You two are very talented in throwing sharp objects at a board. Now, let's have a toast yeah?" Thomas smiles as JJ and Sid turn their attention to Thomas and hold their glasses up. Thomas holds his glass high and shuts his eyes before opening his mouth, "Here's to the safety of our team in this upcoming journey and our loved ones who'll stay behind. To every lovely creature on this planet who lives in ignorant bliss. To life, love, laughter, and doughnuts." Thomas smiles and JJ and Sid as his smiles fades, "To Chris, a friend whom we loved and lost too soon. He is here with us in spirit and memory, and we miss him very much."

Sid shuts his eyes to hold back his tears, "To Chris, we love you man."

JJ nods sadly and says, "Cheers mate, we miss you." He raises his drink high before they all clink their glasses together and take a drink. They all sit in silence for a few minutes and ponder their last few days on the NASA base. JJ finally looks up and smiles, "Darts then?"

Sid adjusts his glasses and black beanie and grins, "You're on." They both jump up and scramble to the dart board. "I get red though! I only win when I'm red!"

Thomas laughs and shakes his head, "You only win, when JJ loses!" Thomas takes a sip and nods and waves as he see Cook's head pop through the bar's entrance. Cook lets out a wolf cry as he enters the bar with Katie on his arm and Emily and Naomi rolling their eyes as the follow them into the bar.

Naomi smirks, finding Emily's ear, and whispers , "One drink, then we're out of here okay?"

"Thomo! Yeah man, what we drinking?!" Cook throws his arms out to the sides as he approaches Thomas. "Beer?! Naw, not for this occasion! We need TEQUILLLLLLLA!" Cook slams his hands down on Thomas' shoulders as he wolf cries to the ceiling again.

Thomas shakes his head, "I don't know Cook, we have a big day tomorrow." He gets up and collects some more chairs and pushes another table next to theirs. He smiles at Katie as he offers her a chair, "Mon cherie." She smiles and takes it.

"Thanks Thomas, this is my sister Katie by the way," Emily smiles as Thomas offers her and Naomi a chair as well. Naomi blows Thomas a kiss as she sits and steals a sip of beer from either Sid or JJ's drink and laughs as she holds her finger up to her mouth.

Thomas holds his hand out to Katie, "So nice to meet you Katie, I'm Thomas. I work for your dad."

"Nice to meet you too," Katie smiles as she holds her hand out to meet his. "Oh yeah, and thanks." Katie smiles nervously.

Thomas smiles and shakes his head, "We all are on this journey together. We all play a part, even if we don't know what that part is. I must thank you, as much as you thank me."

Katie smiles and laughs, "Yeah? Well, maybe I can design your suites!" Cook sits down with a massive tray of tequila shots. "Fuck's sake babes, you remember what tequila does to me?"

Cook wiggles his eye brows at her and grins the infamous Cook grin at her. "Yeah babe, but we're celebrating here!" He smiles as he throws a shot back and howls at the ceiling.

Naomi smirks as she watches Cook grab two more shots and knock them back with a cry. Katie coughs as she sets her glass down and watches Emily cringe as she finishes hers. Naomi laughs, "Easy Cook! Remember what we're doing tomorrow yeah? If I recall, you were the happiest flier!" Naomi imitates Cook kissing the ground and laughs with Emily and Thomas.

Cook stares at Naomi with a shocked face, "What are you talking about? The Cookie Monster was just showing the ground some much needed love and respect, that's all." He smiles as he throws back yet another shot. "Come on Naoms, don't be a pussy! Where's your spirit? Take a shot!"

Naomi lifts her eye brow and her shot and knocks it back in one swift motion, setting the glass down with a smirk. "Tosser." Naomi winks at Cook.

Cook laughs and throws his arm around Katie, "Nice one blondie, nice one."

Katie smiles as she sees someone at the jute box, "Babe? Do you have any change?" Cook nods as he sips from the now communal glasses of beer on the table.

"Awe, babe just don't pick some sappy-" Cook looks up as he hears Steven Tyler's voice flow through the speaker system. "SHIT LIKE THIS!?" Cook points up and rolls his eyes at "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" playing on the jute box .

Naomi smiles as she turns to Emily, "Come on, lets dance!" Emily smiles as she steals a sip of beer and giggles as Naomi pulls her by the hand from the table.

Cook shakes his head as he starts to finish off the one glass of beer, "Can't they play some _real _Aerosmith at least?"

Katie laughs, "Come on babes, shut up and dance with me!" Katie drags Cook away from the table mid sip.

Naomi laughs as she twirls Emily onto the dance floor, "I'm don't know how many opportunities we'll have in the next few days to do this, so humor me." She pulls Emily into her and Emily wraps her arms around Naomi's neck. Naomi whispers into Emily's ear, "Although, dancing with you around the Moon, with the Blue Planet as our view sounds pretty great to me."

Emily smiles into Naomi's shoulder and squeezes her tight, "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be taking this adventure with anyone else." Emily shuts her eyes to savor every beat of Noami's heart, every sway of their hips, every one of Naomi's breaths on her neck. Emily pulls back and stares at Naomi with her eyes welling up, "To be honest, I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't thrown into this mess with you. I mean, I don't know what I would have done with myself knowing what was going on and having to wait for either your return, or the end."

Naomi wipes away a rogue tear that made it's way down Emily's cheek. "I know, but let's not think about that right now okay? This is us, you and me, right now. And besides, this is just a job. A job that we all know we can accomplish, and we will. You can do this Ems, so breathe and dance with me just a little bit longer." Naomi smiles and brings her lips to Emily's.

With Katie supplying more mushy love songs from the jute box, Emily and Naomi continue to dance and Cook complies with Katie in between drinks. JJ, as predicted, beat Sid in darts and they return to the table to see their beer has been consumed. They look at each other and shake their heads in annoyance as Thomas throws his heads up with a smile.

XXXXX

James sits with Rob in the NASA living quarters, "What is it going to be like? You know, up there?"

Rob shrugs, "From what I hear, pretty scary."

"Are you scared?" James looks at Rob with a frown.

Rob nods, "Yes son, I am. But we are a the best, and we're going to get the job done and come home." Rob rubs James' back and smiles.

Jenna joins the men, carrying three mugs of tea. She sits and smiles, "So, Rob. I should say that I'm happy all your playing in the mud has come in handy." She takes a sip of her tea and smiles at Rob, "I'm serious Rob. I'm very proud of you."

James rolls his eyes, "Yeah well, I love you guys but I'm so incredibly jet lagged from all this traveling. I know this is precious time, but I'm falling asleep." James gets up and hugs his dad tightly, "I love you dad. Come home when you're done saving the world." Rob squeezes his son tight and pets James' hair.

"I love you too son," Rob forces back the tears and smiles. "Sleep well."

"Night sweetie," Jenna smiles. James gives her a tight hug and kiss as well. "I love you honey."

"Love you too mum, night." James yawns and stumbles to the bed NASA arranged for him.

Jenna fiddles with her mug, "I left Carl."

Rob looks at Jenna with surprise, "What?"

"I couldn't do it any longer, so I left him. James had just arrived and I took him with me back to Bristol." Jenna looks up at Rob. "As much as I tried to make him, he wasn't you. I miss you Rob… I still love you." Rob stares at Jenna in shock. "I'm sorry, I had to tell you…no time like the present right?" Jenna chuckles awkwardly, "Especially when the end of the world is near." Rob nods as he processes what she just confessed. "Say something?" Jenna cocks her head to side as she buckles under her nerves. Rob simply replies with a kiss, making up for the years lost together.

XXXXX

Tony's phone vibrates on the table and Effy lifts her eye brow at him. "Are you going to answer that?" He smiles as he takes a bite of his sweet & sour chicken. Effy rolls her eyes, "God, you revert the minute you leave the building." Tony chuckles as he chews and Effy grabs his phone, answering the call. She holds the phone up to her ear and stares at Tony. She bites her lip and ends the call. "Turn on the telly Tone, Jenna has gone public.

Tone pushes his chair back and steps towards the television and turns it to a channel that broadcasts news. The footage of Shanghai in ruins makes Tony have to sit down, his leg braces creaking as he sits. He leans forward on his knees and pushes his hands through his hair in shock. Effy joins him and puts her hands on his shoulders as she watches in horror. The news caster speaks over the camera shots, "The death of 50,000 in Shanghai yesterday has rattled the world. A title wave 5 miles high swept away everyone and thing in its path. The government officials have released information that a large asteroid threatens the existence of this planet and that this incident is the first of many in the next few days." The news flash to a NASA public official, "We have gathered a team of astronauts that will arrive in Florida tomorrow evening for the largest joint space venture in history-" Tony shuts off the television and sighs in the silence.

"Fuck. It's happening, and now the world knows." Effy sits next to Tony on the arm of the chair and wraps her arms around him as Tony stares blankly at the black screen. "You know I would do anything if I could be up there with you, right?" Effy nods as a tear rolls down her cheek. His voice cracks with emotion, "I've wanted that mission patch so badly…that fucking bus…these fucking legs…" Tony smiles at Effy sadly, "I'm glad at least one Stonem will get one."

Effy sniffs and wipes her eyes before kissing Tony on the cheek, "Come on, let's not spend our last in sorrow…let's go get a drink."

"Sounds like a plan, hey what's Mclair doing during his break? Aren't you two like an item?" Tony asks as he stands up from the chair.

Effy smirks, "It's whatever I want it to be, and I believe he went to see his sister Karen in California. She's just signed with an all-girl group called The Sexbombs." Effy laughs, "She's nice and all, but singing songs called 'Ass to Ass' just isn't my thing." Effy smiles as she pulls her hair up into a messy ponytail. "First round's on me bro."

XXXXX

Tony holds the door open for Effy as they enter the bar. He shakes his head as he spies Cook making a mess, chugging a pitcher of beer while spilling most of the contents down his shirt instead. Tony turns to Effy and smiles, "Well, I see the party as hard as they work." Tony turns around looking a the couple of televisions to see if they're playing anything on Jenna, but all are playing sports with news tickers scrolling at the bottom of the screen.

Effy sees what Tony is looking for and smiles at him, "Everyone seems pretty wasted and I'm sure no one even notices the news tickers. There's no need to bring it up in their condition, let's just have a drink and relax alright?"

"HEEEEEEY! Look who it is!" Cook smiles and throws his arms out to the sides.

Tony smiles and waves as Effy orders a cocktail and beer for Tony. She looks over her shoulder and smiles before paying the bar tender. She turns around afterwards and walks towards the group, "Hello everyone, I hope you're using good judgment tonight?" She smiles and laughs at the groups and her eyes land on Katie, "I don't believe we've met? I'm Colonel Elizabeth Stonem, you can call me Effy." Effy smiles and holds out her hand.

Katie's eyes go as wide as her drunken smile, "Oh wow, hi. Yeah. Katie, I'm Katie. Nice to meet you." Effy flashes her brilliant smile and Katie fumbles with her glass to shake her hand, "Would you like a drink? We had a pitcher a second ago…" Katie looks around and smiles, "Oh well, have a seat?" Effy laughs as she brushes off the seat before sitting down next to Katie.

Tony finishes tinkering around on his phone, grabs his drink, and approaches the table. He takes his seat and Cook leans over the table and smiles, "So Stonem, we got time to hear why you are controlling the missions instead of taking them."

Tony smiles and takes a sip of his drink, "I guess we do." Sid, Thomas, and JJ all nod with interest. "Well since you're all here and I won't have to repeat it." Tony looks up, "Hey, where's Emily and Naomi?"

Cook spins on his chair as he looks around the bar and turns back to the table with a grin, "I guess they found more exciting things to do with their time."

Tony nods, "Well to nutshell it, I was 17. I was having a fight with my girlfriend at the time, and I was going to see her. I stepped into the road while on the phone with her, and was stuck by a passing bus. I had pretty severe injuries but managed to come out alive. I had some memory loss issues at first, and I couldn't walk. After physical therapy and such, my legs were usable but never the same. I needed these braces on my legs ever since to help support my joints. I had always dreamt of going into space, even as a boy. So when I got in the program, I was hopeful that if I scored high enough, it wouldn't matter about my physical ability…" Tony takes a sip of his beer. "Although, that wasn't the case, and I was never allowed in a shuttle. The next best thing was directing missions, like I will with yours." Tony smiles somberly and takes another drink.

Cook rubs his fingertip around the rim of his glass, "That's rough man. I'm really sorry about what happened."

"Yeah, well. It's my past as much as it sucks. But anyway, I'll be living vicariously through you guys tomorrow. I'll be with you through radio and we'll be watching every move you make, so know you're not alone up there." Tony smiles and pats Cook's shoulder.

Cook looks over at Katie and Effy huddled over their drinks talking. Katie smiles and reaches up to touch Effy's loose tendril of hair that has fallen out of her pony tail. Cook shakes his head as she comments on how nice her hair is, and smiles to himself. "Looks like my girl likes your sister." He waggles his eye brows and takes a drink.

XXXXX

As closing time kicks JJ, Thomas, Sid, Cook, Katie, Effy, and Tony out, they all stumble out in pairs as Thomas holds the door for them. Sid and JJ are singing "Leaving On A Jet Plane" while swaying a little to harshly and crash into the brick wall. Cook is asking if Tony knows if Total Recall could really happen. More so, if Cook could meet an alien prostitute with three breasts. Effy and Katie are walking arm in arm down the cool, damp ally way from the bar making small talk about life and timing. The gang all heading back to their beds to prepare for the big day tomorrow that starts their journey of a lifetime.

**Weeee! We launch next chapter! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you thought :D Till next time my sweets! xx**


	7. Chapter 7

**The day has come...dun dun duuuun! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter :D Thank you again for those who take the time to leave a review :D It really does make my face happy! Alright enough with the jibber jabber, on with the story! :D xx**

Naomi wakes in her bed, the warmth of the sun shining on her bare skin. She rolls over and props herself on her elbow. With her free arm, she traces Emily's shoulder blade with the tip of her finger. Emily begins to stir and groans into her pillow. "Arrrrgh, what time is it?" Emily grinds her face into the pillow and brings her hands up to her hair to rub her fingers into her scalp.

Naomi smiles and chuckles, "It's time to get up, we have a 2:00 flight to Cape Canaveral."

Emily flips over and rubs her eyes, "Fine. But what time is it?" Emily smiles as Naomi kisses her shoulder.

"It is…PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!" Naomi giggles as she nuzzles into Emily's neck and busts into the Peanut Butter Jelly Time song. Emily giggles as Naomi jumps up and breaks it down, "with a baseball bat" and dances all silly like. After a huff and a smile, Naomi kneels back down on the bed and crawls over to Emily. "Okay now that _I'm_ up, seriously Ems, it's almost noon and we have to be ready by 1:30."

"Jesus! Why didn't you say so?!" Emily sits up, putting her weight on her hands and wrists, catching Naomi off guard. Emily gives Naomi a cheeky smile, "There's plenty of time." Naomi laughs as Emily captures her lips and pulls her back down into the bed.

XXXXX

1:45 and Rob, Jenna, and James are all saying their goodbyes in the front hallway of the NASA building.

Rob releases James from his mighty grip and wipes away his tears with a confident smile, "I'll see you soon. I love you son."

James nods with a quivering chin, "I love you too dad." James wipes a tear away and looks at his feet.

Rob turns to Jenna, who is blotting her eye make up and smiles nervously. He puts his arms around her waist and she throws her arms around his neck, squeezing him tight. "Promise me you'll come back, that you'll come home to me, to us."

Rob shuts his eyes, "After 20 years of marriage and 3 years of divorce, you are still my home, and I'm coming back to you." Jenna smiles and sobs into his shoulder.

XXXXX

JJ, Sid, and Thomas show up to where the airport shuttle waits. Sid has his beanie pulled over his eyes and is complaining already. "Can we stop for some breakfast first? I'm starving." Thomas offers him a colorful doughnut and Sid gags at the thought, causing Thomas to laugh and take another joyous bite.

JJ paces nervously and keeps looking at a notebook of trouble shooting and systems of operations of the nuclear bombs, mumbling to himself as he reads. Cook, enjoying the cool breeze, watches from a sitting position on the ground, leaning up against a cement planter. Finally Cook has enough and shouts, "Oi! Double J! Stop with the pacing yeah? You're making me want to puke!"

Cook turns his head and spies Katie and Effy are off in the distance talking and hugging. He stares with a curious smile until he feels a nudge at his knee. "Hey man, you okay?" Naomi asks as she kicks him slightly in the knee. Emily is standing behind her, letting the wind blow the red strands out of her face.

Cook looks up in the sun with a squint and smiles a cocky grin, "Oh yeah blondie, you're the one who fucked off last night." Naomi smirks and lets out a chuckle. "Ha! Care to share any photos from your trip to Lesbos Island?" Cook waggles his eyebrows, "Don't act all innocent and shit, you two weren't fooling no one."

"Tosser!" Naomi grins as she pushes Cook on the head and causes him to tumble over laughing. Naomi looks up from Cook and sees Emily searching for the rest of her family. Naomi takes Emily's hand and smiles at her and points, "Katie is down there talking to...no hugging actually…Colonel Stonem?" Naomi squints in the sun and laughs, "I didn't know they knew each other." Emily lifts her eyebrows and shoulders as she tucks her hair back behind her ear.

"Oh yeah, they hit it off last night at the bar…after you two snuck off." Cook jumps in as he lights up a cigarette and laughs, "I was hoping the Cookie Monster was going to get a little 369 action…but sadly, I passed out before Katikins even made it to bed. She was up all night talking with her." Cook makes a gun out of his hand and shoots it down at the two embracing father down from the group. He laughs and shrugs his shoulders as he takes a long drag.

Emily laughs, "369? What is tha-" Naomi interrupts Emily's question with a shake of the head and a furrowed brow.

Cook cracks up with a gapping smile, "Ems, I'll be happy to show you two some time, yeah?"

Emily cringes at the sudden realization, "In your wildest of dreams Cook."

"Actually it's more like a bank love," Cook winks at Naomi and Emily, who both roll their eyes in response.

"Come on babe, let's go find your mum and James." Naomi smiles and takes Emily's arm in hers as they walk down the side of the building.

"Emily!" Naomi and Emily look up and see Katie and Effy walking towards them. "Ems!" Katie is waving her hand, "Do you really think you're going to leave without saying goodbye?!" Katie quickens her pace and meet up with Emily and Naomi, a little out of breath. Effy smiles at both Naomi and Emily as Katie takes a deep breath, "Okay, now…give me a hug Emsy."

Emily smiles, but her chin begins to quiver and her eyes start to well up. Katie takes Emily in her arms and holds her tight. "You're coming back yeah? Don't make me come out there and kick you ass back to Earth!" Emily laughs between sobs and hugs her again.

"What are you going to do while we're gone?" Emily and Katie both wipe their eyes.

"Ah, you know…hang out with mum and James, tell embarrassing stories about you over the radio…" Naomi snorts and grins at Emily. Katie grins, "Umm and get Tony to give me some dirt on Effy here." Katie smiles and turns on her heal and giggles as she looks at Effy.

Effy laughs as she tucks her hair back behind her ear and looks at her shoes, "I don't know if you have enough time for that Katie."

Katie lifts her eyebrow and smirks, "Intriguing…" Naomi and Emily send each other curious looks as Katie and Effy smile at each other. Katie looks at Emily, "Okay, let's find dad. I'm sure he's with mum and James."

Emily nods and looks around. She catches her mother hair through the glass doors of the building. "There's mum." Emily points at the front entrance. "Let's go." Katie nods at Emily and turns to Effy and gives her another hug, murmuring something in her ear that makes Effy smile and close her eyes.

Katie then turns to Naomi and smiles a tearful smile as she pulls Naomi in for a hug. "Take care of my family up there, okay?" Naomi nods and gives Katie a squeeze before pulling back from the hug.

Naomi rubs Emily's back and kisses her cheek, "I'm going to head back to the bus okay?" Emily nods and takes Katie's hand in hers and they head into the building. Naomi shoves her hands in her pockets and walks back to the group waiting to board the airport shuttle.

Effy hangs back for a few moments to clear the tears in her eyes. She finally steps into the building to meet her own family for her goodbyes. She smiles as she passes Katie jumping into her father's arms and Emily embracing her mother. She looks over to see Freddie and Tony shaking hands and smiling. She makes her way over to them, taking a deep breath in her last steps.

"This is it yeah?" Effy smiles as she joins Freddie and Tony.

Freddie nods with a serious face, "This is it, are you ready?" Freddie smiles at Effy and Tony.

"I'm always ready." Effy smirks with confidence as she nudges Tony in the shoulder.

Tony chuckles and smiles as he throws his arm around Effy, "Ah yes, the Stonem confidence never wavers." He pulls her in for a hug and kisses her on the top of her head. "Come back in one piece okay kid? Promise?"

Effy smiles and hugs him tight, "I will. I promise."

Freddie smiles and looks at his watch, "It's time, we should get to the bus." Effy nods and gives Tony one last hug before she and Freddie walk towards the group.

Freddie chuckles as the rest of the gang come into view, "I still can't believe this is the crack team they came up with…that NASA came up with."

Effy smiles, "They are the best at what they do, and _we're _the best at what _we _do. Let's get them there to do their job, and we'll do ours." Effy smiles at Freddie and gives him a nudge.

"Well _you're_ quite positive lately, what's gotten into you?" Freddie laughs and smiles at Effy.

"Life's short man, look at what we're about to do? You got to lighten up a bit yeah?" Effy pats Freddie on the back and ruffles his hair. "I'm surprised they haven't made you cut your hair?"

"I guess they're lightening up too." Freddie smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

"Hey! The chauffeurs have arrived!" Cook grins and throws his arms out to the sides.

Effy smiles, "Hello everyone. How's everyone feeling today?" Sid groans, JJ fidgets with his notebook, Thomas licks the icing off his fingers and smiles, and Naomi just stares off into the distance. Effy smirks, "Wow, an inspiring bunch."

JJ looks at his watch and continues pacing, muttering, "Where's Rob and Emily? We're late. We're late. We're late!"

"Chill JJ, they aren't going to leave without them man." Cook stands and pats JJ on the shoulder. 'Getting a bit locked on, yeah?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm just a tad nervous, that's all." JJ smiles sheepishly.

"Well, we are running late." Freddie chimes in. "It's well after 2, and we still have a 3 hour flight ahead of us and launch is at 6:30."

"Oh here they come!" Sid yells as Rob and Emily come jogging from the building.

"Okay let's move people!" Freddie claps as everyone begins to board the shuttle.

Emily wipes away a tear and finds Naomi, tucking her hand into hers. "You okay?" Naomi asks before kissing Emily's temple.

"Yeah, this is just really intense. I mean, there's so much going on and it all happened in the past 24 hours." Emily huffs as she takes her seat on the bus, Naomi sitting next to her. "I'll tell you more later." Emily smiles as Effy takes the seat in front of them.

"Are we going to throw off all the times now because we're running late?" Naomi leans forward, resting her arms on the headrest of the seat in front of her, as the bus jerks into motion and heads to the airport.

Effy smiles, "Well they tell you a time to be ready, but it's usually like most appointment times. You know, hurry up and wait." Effy laughs, "Although they probably made a larger cushion for you guys, being inexperienced and all…no offense."

Naomi smiles, "None taken. How many times have you been in space?"

Effy smiles, "Three times. They were mainly for satellite repairs and once was to do a repair on the space station."

"Wow, so you're quite handy on top of it yeah?" Naomi smiles.

"Yeah, well…with some things." Effy shrugs. "This is my first real mission I suppose, I've never landed a shuttle on an asteroid moving 22,000 miles a hour before." Effy smiles and chuckles, "I was the best in my class at pinpoint landing, so I'm not worried."

"Yeah? That's good to know." Naomi smiles and looks over at Emily, who is staring out the window in silence. "Ems? Penny for your thoughts?"

Emily turns to Naomi and smiles, "Ha, how much money do you have?"

"It's okay, my mind races like crazy before a launch too." Effy smiles.

"Yeah, well I'm just worried about Katie, James, and my mum." Emily takes a breath.

"Well, if they're anything like your sister, I'm sure they'll be fine." Effy smiles.

Emily smirks, "I didn't know you and Katie were so close."

Effy shrugs, "I'm very perceptive. Katie and I may have just met, but when you connect with someone instantly it's quality over quantity." Effy smiles and looks out the window.

XXXXX

After a hurried departure at NASA's private airport, the gang take the 3 hour flight to Cape Canaveral, Florida. They don't have much time to prepare for the launch at 6:30. The group is rushed into the prep building to get geared up. Technicians in all white, sterile outfits help the crew get into their suits. The drillers are in orange, the pilots in blue. These suits have many zipper pockets, buckles, tubes, and straps, completed with an oxygen tank.

Naomi smiles as she looks down at her chest, reading the patch that says her name. She looks at Emily and smiles, "Do me a favor? Stick this to my tank for me?" Emily smiles as she takes the sticker from Naomi's hands, peels the backing, and presses it to her oxygen tank.

The media collects outside the Kennedy Space Center. Spokes people for the President and NASA program keep the media at bay until the President is ready to address the world. The geared up group can hear the roar of people and helicopters recording footage of the building. The hangar door opens, revealing the crew members lined up, holding their helmets. The crowd is full of boom mics, camcorders, cameras, and media folk. Cameras flash and people cheer and clap as the group walks out towards the shuttle that will drive them to the launch pad.

XXXXX

Gina turns on the television after getting a radio message of what happened in the South Pacific. The CNN anchor live from Florida talks about the asteroid and introduces the feed from the NASA headquarters. The speaker's voice plays over the footage from Florida, "This team of astronauts includes pilots Elizabeth Stonem and Freddie Mclair. The specialists from Rob Fitch's team are JJ Jones, Thomas Tomone, Sid Jenkins, James Cook, Naomi Campbell, and Emily Fitch."

Gina's face falls when she hears the news and her daughter's name come up. The camera zooms in to reveal the team in their space suits. Gina smiles when she sees Naomi's square pack on her back sporting a "GIVE COAL THE BOOT!" bumper sticker shaped in a combat boot print. A tear falls from Gina's eye as the camera zooms out and the orange suits fade away. A fellow Greenpeace member sitting next to Gina grabs her hand and she smiles, "That's my daughter, saving the world." She smiles as more tears fall to her cheeks.

XXXXX

The world watches as the Presidential address begins to start. Katie, James, and Jenna all sit together on the couch hand in hand. Seeing everyone suited up makes everything so real, and Katie's eyes begin to well up again. Jenna hands her a box of tissues as she takes one for herself. James quietly watches as the President's podium appears on the television.

Cameras flash and more microphones pop in the line of view. The president comes into view and stands in front of several microphones, placed in position. He pauses, "I address you tonight, not as the President of the United States, not as the leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity. We are faced with the gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day, Armageddon, the end of all things. And yet, for the first time in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent its own extinction. All of you praying with us need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster is being called into service. The human species thirst for excellence, knowledge, every step up the ladder of science, every adventurous reach into space. All of our combined modern technologies and imaginations, even the wars that we've fought have provided us the tools to wage this terrible battle. Through all the chaos that is our history, through all of the wrong and the discord, through all of the pain and suffering, through all of our times, there is one thing that has nourished our souls, and elevated our species above its origins, and the is our courage. The dreams of an entire planet are focused tonight on those nine brave souls traveling into the heavens. And may we all, citizens the world over, see these events through. God speed, and good luck to you."

XXXXX

The shuttle pulls up to the huge launch site and stops. The police escort pulls of to the side and the individual cars park as well. The officers get out of their vehicle and salute the gang as they exit the bus. After being directed to the launch pad's lift to the bridge, the group files into the lift and the large metal gate closes. They begin to make their way up to the bridge for loading the space shuttle. The lift stops and the gate lifts up to show a narrow pathway to the open door of the shuttle.

Thomas admires the shuttle's shear size and hopes in. Sid starts to whine as he almost hits his head on the doorframe. Cook looks down and starts cussing and muttering to himself as he enters the ship. Freddie and Effy effortlessly enter the shuttle, Effy kisses her hand and pats the outside of the ship as she ducks her head under the roof of the entrance. JJ is blinking and frantically looking around at all the gadgets as he enters the craft. Emily and Naomi are holding hands as they approach the ship, Rob is the last off the lift and is a few paces behind Naomi.

Rob comes up to Emily and kisses her head. "Alright love, are you ready for this?" Emily nods and smiles as he hugs her one last time. "Naomi, how are you feeling?"

Naomi shrugs, "Good you know, considering I've never been this scared in my entire life." She smiles with a hint of sarcasm shining through. "I just want you to know-" Rob goes to say before Naomi interrupts him.

"I know Rob, I'll try _not _to disappoint you up there"

Rob smiles and pats Naomi on the shoulder, "Okay girls, let's do this." Rob walks towards the door and boards the shuttle.

Emily smiles and chuckles at Naomi, "You look really cute in your space suit."

Naomi smiles and pulls Emily in for one last kiss on Earth, "I love you Emily Fitch. Without you in my life, the world is not worth saving."

Emily shuts her eyes and wraps her arms around Naomi tightly. "I love you too."

"Ladies! We have a planet to save! Come on!" Cook yells from the inside.

Emily sniffs and pulls out of the hug. She nods at Naomi who smiles back and they head to the door of the shuttle.

Naomi's eyes go wide when she takes her first step inside. There are techs standing to help her in and to her seat. Everyone is laying on their back, for the shuttle is pointed upwards. Effy and Freddie are being strapped into their seats in the front of the shuttle. Naomi looks at all the blinking lights and knobs with wonder before the tech takes her hand. Emily is right behind her being helped to her seat.

Naomi laughs nervously as she over hears Cook, who is sitting in front of Rob, next to Thomas, say, "Hey Rob. Did you know we're sitting on four-million pounds of fuel, two nuclear weapons, and a thing that has 270,00 moving parts?"

Rob smiles and shakes his head, "Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it?" Rob looks to his left at JJ, who has a tech's foot on his chest, using the leverage to strap him in as tight as possible. "JJ, you okay?"

JJ cringes at the pain of the straps, "Well um, I'm feeling scared and excited. I'd say 98% excited, 2% scared." Another foot on his shoulder and a pull of a strap, JJ huffs, "Or maybe it's the other way around, I can't say for sure…hence why it's so intense."

"Oi mate! A little tighter…I don't want to fall out yeah?" Cook says to his tech who is working on him.

Emily smirks at Cook's comment as she is strapped in. She is sitting next to Naomi, behind her father, and in front of Sid. She looks back at Sid while she still can, "Why are you all by yourself back there?"

"Well, Colonel Stonem didn't want me to puke on her, so she made me get the farthest from her." Sid adjusts his glasses the best he can after being strapped in.

Emily laughs, "Oh great, well don't puke on me either okay?" She smiles at him before the technician has her look forward to finish strapping her in.

Everyone is ready to go, the technicians place their helmets on and fasten them in. "Can everyone hear me?" Effy's voice is heard in everyone's helmet radio. Everyone responds and gets a kick out of the communications with their crew. Effy gives a thumbs up to the last technician in the shuttle before she makes her exit. The technician salutes everyone in the shuttle before closing the heavy, thick door behind her. It hisses with the pressurization as it closes. "Alright everyone. This is it." Effy says as she makes some final flicks of a switch.

The technicians in the Kennedy Firing Room are busy with last minute preparations. The Head Flight Director stands in front of the massive screens and controls as he yells loudly, "Alright Flight Directors, I need the go/no go for launch!" The techs at each station are ready for the call.

"Retro!"

"Go flight!"

"Booster!"

"Go flight."

"Ecos!"

"Go flight."

"Trajectory!"

"Go flight!"

"FIDO!"

"Go flight."

"EVA!"

"Go flight!"

"CAPCOM!"

"We're go flight!"

The gang wait in the shuttle as the director comes over the radio, "This is Kennedy Firing Room, we're T minus one minute to launch. All crew members close and lock your visors."

"Fuck me this is getting real!" Cook says as he clicks his visor shut. Emily looks at Naomi after shutting hers and reaches her hand out to Naomi. Naomi takes Emily's hand and squeezes it tightly.

"Here we go!" Rob hoots with nervous excitement as he shuts his.

Effy nods as she hears the speaker, "This is launch control, we are T minus 31. You're go for auto-sequence start." Effy flips a switch and the shuttle begins to vibrate and shake.

Thomas looks at Cook and smiles as the speaker announces, "P.L.T.s perform you're A.P.U. pre-start." The ship shakes harder and the lights from the countdown lights shine through the windscreen and view ports of the craft.

The countdown continues when Tony's voice sounds, "Okay ladies and gentlemen, you're our warriors up there. God be with you. You're already heroes, just sit back and enjoy the ride." Effy smiles at her brother's voice and braces herself for launch.

"T minus 20 seconds." Naomi grits her teeth and squeals as the ship shakes intensely.

The loud booms of the engines firing as the countdown lights reflect in the crew's helmet visors. 10...9...8...7...The launch controller announces, "We have main engine start." The roar of the engines gets louder. 6...5...4...3...2...1 The controller comes back on, "We have lift off!"

Massive billowing smoke clouds fill the sky for miles as the shuttle levitates. The bright lights can be seen for miles as the awesome engines blaze. With the violent shaking Effy asks, "Flight Deck, how are we looking?"

"Stonem, you're looking good." The flight deck technician announces.

Freddie clenches his jaw with the jolts, " Houston, we are cooking!" The ship lifts higher in the sky, leaving a long smoke trail to the ground.

The Head Flight Director announces, "Houston, the tower is clear. They are all yours!"

**I hope you all are enjoying the story as much as I am writing it! Feed back is ALWAYS appreciated, so you know where the review button is ;) Thanks again for reading, and hope to have an update soon! xx**


	8. Chapter 8

**We meet again! :) Hello there, ready for more? I hope so!Thank you once again to all who are reading and taking that extra moment to give me a little love! I really appreciate it, it honestly makes my day! Much love to all! XD xx  
**

"Heads up everybody! They're ours now!" Tony calls out as everyone watches their monitors. A blinking dot showing where the shuttle is on the screen. He paces the mission room with crossed arms as he listens to the radio feedback.

The shuttle is quickly leaving the Earth's atmosphere and the blue hue is turning darker by the second. The force is so great that everyone remains silent, Freddie looks at the instruments and struggles to say, "Houston, we are at max cue, I repeat max cue."

Effy hears Houston over the radio to execute the roll maneuver. She flips the shuttle in a complete 360 degree turn and manages to say, "Houston, roll maneuver executed." The shuttle flattens out and the Earth now looks the famous Blue Marble photograph.

Freddie presses some buttons and flips a few switches and says, "Houston, we are single-engine, press, demi go." Houston copies and authorizes the detachment of the booster. There is a loud banging noise as the booster floats away into space. The shuttle slows and the gravitational force lightens enough to breathe easier and move appendages.

Naomi turns her head and lifts her visor as she looks out the view port to her left. She removes her helmet and looks closer, "Jesus, I need to tell my mother about the amount of junk outside of the Earth, not just on Earth." Emily takes off her helmet and smiles as she turns her head to look at the spectacular view of Earth. Naomi smiles at Emily, "I don't know if it was the ride or the view, but this is breathtaking out here."

"It's absolutely stellar," Emily says as she sees Earth outside the port and takes Naomi's hand.

"Actually Ems," JJ turns around smiling. "The Earth is magnificent yes, but it is not a star; therefore it is not stellar." Emily smiles as she rolls her eyes and JJ continues, "Stars emit light produced by an internal nuclear burning, so to speak, whereas a planet only reflects light. The Sun is a star for-"

"JJ Locked on…thanks, for clearing that up for me." Emily smiles and shakes her head in amusement over the shear amount of information that comes out of the boy's mouth per second.

Naomi chuckles and looks out the port again, squeezing Emily's hand, "Meet me in outer space. We can spend the night, watch the Earth come up. I've grown tired of that place, won't you come with me? We can start again…"

"Okaaaay Naomi, we all didn't get tickets to the concert." Rob looks back and smiles. "Although it is rather wonderful. Let's just try and stay focused, so that we can save that beautiful planet and all we love on it yeah?"

"Main engine cut out on schedule," Houston radios and Effy cuts the engine. The ships continues to float along, leaving it is safe to move around in the cabin.

Thomas lifts his visor and takes a breath, "That was quite a ride!" He pops off his helmet and holds it in his lap and smiles at Cook.

Cook looks at Thomas and cringes, " Maybe it was Naomi's singing or the fact that my stomach has returned to it's normal shape…but I don't feel so great."

Sid laughs as he removes his helmet, "And Colonel Stonem thought _I_ was going to be the puker!" Cook responds by holding up his arm and middle finger.

Effy takes off her helmet and looks behind her while Freddie turns a knob and flips a switch and says, "Houston, telemetry is up and running."

"Copy that Mclair," Houston says as the ship steadies and Freddie flips his visor and removes his helmet. He leans back in his chair and stretches his arms and back, rolling his eyes at Cook's confession.

"Here," Effy rolls her eyes as turns to Cook pointing to a pocket on her chest. "In your pocket, there's a sick bag." Cook lifts his visor, digs into his suit retrieving the bag, and rips off his helmet before ducking to the side and throws up.

Sid laughs from the back of the cabin, before feeling queasy and grabbing his sick bag and throwing up. Cook instantly points and laughs. Emily cringes and looks at Naomi in disgust while Naomi just laughs and shouts, "You tossers!"

Emily lifts her other hand to scratch an itch on her nose and her helmet floats up. She giggles and slams her hand down on top to hold it down with a surprised face. Everyone looks at Emily and remembers there is no gravity in the cabin. Freddie turns around, "Alright folks, how are we all feeling?" Cook and Sid, who are wiping their mouths nod and smile at Freddie. He cringes in response, "Okay well. As you can tell we don't have gravity, so be careful if you choose to unbuckle yourself. The gang hoots with relief and excitement, and begin to unbuckle and float around.

"Okay guys, you should be seeing the International Space Station soon." Tony radios over.

"Roger that Houston, we have visual and are initiation retro burns." Effy responds as she flips two switches simultaneously.

Tony's voice once again fills the cabin, "Now remember gang, Colonel Moon has been up there for 18 months alone, so don't be afraid if she's a little…off." Effy smiles because she's been to the station for repairs in a previous mission.

XXXXX

Panda summersaults in the zero gravity bubble of the space station. She has a placid smile on her face when Tony's voice comes over her radio, "Come in Colonel Moon, this is Houston."

"Bonkers!" Panda chirps as she goes to her radio and floats on her back with her feet touching the ceiling. "Hello Houuuuston! This is the International Space Station! How you feeling?!"

"We're looking good Colonel Moon, how are things looking up there?" Tony smiles as he hears Panda cooing with strange delight.

"Jeepers! Tony!? Is that you? You've always had such a ripper voice." Panda rolls on her back and pushes herself down closer to the floor.

"Panda, it's been too long." Tony smiles, "Okay Panda, well we are ready for the transfusion when you are."

"Whizzer…I'm ready to fire my thrusters when you are!" Panda grins at the word thrust. "Initiating gravitational spin!" Panda says as she flips a few switches, and the station begins to spin.

"Copy that, you are maxed at 40% spin." Tony responds.

"Oh yeah, I'm feeling it…I'm having gravity!" Panda feels her body lowering to the ground and steadies herself on the wall. "Whoa…what a rush." Panda smiles and wiggles her arms about as she adjusts to the gravity.

XXXXX

Freddie stands up and stretches his legs, "Alright folks, we're going to dock in a minute, the station has fired their rockets to simulate gravity inside. This will help us work faster when refueling the shuttle."

Effy turns around, "Yeah the gravity could make you feel a little sick. It wouldn't be very nice to come bearing gifts if you know what I mean." She looks at Cook and Sid and lifts her eyebrow. "Anyway, let's exit these space suits and prepare for our transfusion. Remember you have a tracking devise on you at all times, so if you get lost…stay alive, and we will find you."

Sid rolls his eyes, "About time, I haven't thrown up in about an hour."

Cook laughs at Sid and shakes his head, "You pussy."

"What? You got sick too Cook!" Sid wines from the back seat.

"Yeah, once…you got sick three times!" Cook throws his head back and cackles to himself. "Ems and Naomi had to give you their sick bags!"

"Okay, here we go. Switching to manual." Freddie says while flipping a switch. "Manual override, one foot per second." He looks at a monitor as Effy steers. "20 feet…take it slow, let's do this right."

Effy smirks at Freddie as she hears Tony come over the radio, "Looking good on radar. 10 feet, 5 feet…"

The ship makes a loud bang noise and everyone feels a strong vibration. There's a hissing noise that causes the crew to look at each other with worry, before Effy's voice soothes them. "And we have soft dock! Okay let's move!"

XXXXX

The gang get up and file towards the ship's door. Sid opens the door that leads to the bridge to the space station, he looks around with fear and wonder. Too busy looking around, he cracks his head on the top of the door frame. "BOLLOCKS!" He grabs his forehead with both hands and cradles his face as he steps on the bridge. Cook pushes him further down the bridge as his hissing laugh echoes off the bridge walls.

He opens the main lock to the space station and the bright lights force him to squint and shield his eyes with his hand. He looks around at the many tunnels, wires, and tubing that runs along the walls. Cook follows Sid and looks around at all the gadgets. Thomas is right behind Cook with JJ on his heals. "Alright gang you can all stop here!" Effy calls from the back of the group as she crosses the bridge. Effy walks past Freddie, Emily, Naomi, and Rob and to the front of the group. "This is not a gas station, this is a sophisticated laboratory. Colonel Moon is in charge, you do what she says and don't touch anything! Got it?" Effy looks at Cook and Sid. Cook throws a confused look on his face and looks at Sid in protest.

"Oh the guests have arrived!" Panda pops out from a vent in the ceiling, her blonde pig tails hanging down. Every one jumps, except for Effy who just smiles, startled from her appearance. Panda flips her body and jumps down in a blur, landing on Thomas' foot with her dismount. Thomas groans and Panda looks down at her colorful high top shoes. "Oops! Sorry…" She removes her foot sheepishly and eyes Thomas from the feet up, "Yooou're a corker…" She smiles and cocks her head to the side as Thomas nervously smiles.

"Uh hello, I'm Thomas, so glad to meet you." He holds out his hand. Panda takes it and looks like she's about to take a bite out of his face.

"Okay Colonel Moon, we have work to do. We can have coffee later yeah?" Effy smiles and pats Panda on the shoulder.

"Right, okay. Well I'm going to need someone to help with the fueling. You!" Panda points at Sid, "You look small enough to fit into the fuel pod.

Sid frowns at her comment, "I'm not _that_ small." Cook snorts to his response.

"Whatever, just come with me." Panda hands him a cold suit and walks towards the fuel pod. "The rest of you need to connect the fuel lines to your ship. Come on wee man." The rest of the gang head towards the large, silver tubes that are stacked along the walls.

"Okay you heard her! Rob, Thomas, and Cook you guys go get the tubes and connect them to the fuel pod. Naomi, Emily, and JJ I need you guys back over in the shuttle to make sure the connection is secure."

Tony's voice comes over the loud speaker, "Hey guys. Remember you aren't in a rush, but we only have 20 minutes for the fuel transfer. So let's be swift, but safe okay?"

Panda leads Sid down the long, skinny tube to the fuel pod. He struggles on the frozen ladder with the gloves Panda gave him. She rolls her eyes as she gets to the floor. "Well come on slow poke!" Sid jumps down and wines as his glasses fog up. "Okay…Sid." She looks at his suit and back at his face. "To your right is the fuel gauge. Watch the fuel gauge for the pressure reading. If it's at 150 or 160, everything is fine…but anything over 200 and you can kiss your funky gibbon goodbye." Sid looks at the instruments and nods, while wiping his glasses. "IF the pressure should rise, call me on the intercom and pull the lever for the automatic shut down. Got it?"

"Yeah, watch the gauge. Looking for 150-160, anything over 200 equals big disaster. If it hits 200, call you and pull the lever." Sid nods.

"Right, alright. I'm going up to start the transfer now." Panda bounces up the ladder and leaves Sid to shiver in the smoky, frozen pod.

Freddie sits back in his chair behind the controls in the shuttle. He flips a few switches and radios over, "Ready to transfer!"

Rob and Thomas hold a massive fuel line while Cook secures in to the pod valve. Cook looks up and holds his thumb up, "Hard locked! Ready for transfusion!"

Emily secures the line to the ship's fuel tank valve, while Naomi and JJ hold the silver tube. She double checks and calls out, "All set!"

Effy hears Freddie, Emily, and Cook and nods her head at Panda. She pulls a lever and presses some buttons as the control panel beeps and blinks. There is a hissing noise as the fuel pumps begin to work. "Oh I love this part." Panda smiles at Effy.

Freddie puffs his cheeks and lets the air squeak out of his lips as he watches the ship's fuel gauge start to rise. He drums his fingers on the controls panel and hums, Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" to himself while he waits.

Sid takes off fogged up glasses and wipes them off with his shirt. He puts them back on and looks at the gauge. He does a double take as he watches the needle climb past 180. "What the fuck? Shit!" He looks for the intercom button and scraps some frost off the button. He presses it and calls out, "Colonel Moon! The pressure is climbing! Colonel Moon!" He looks back at the gauge, "Fuck me!" He looks around as he thinks, but wheels around when he hears a popping noise come from above him in the numerous tubes and wires.

Panda watches the controls and chats with Effy about life in space, oblivious to Sid's face in the fuzzy intercom monitor. Sid watches the needle climb past 250. "Fuck! Okay, I called her on the intercom and now I have to pull the lever…pull the lever…pull the lever." Sid mutters to himself as he struggles with the frozen stick of metal. "COME ON! FUCK!" Sid is pulling with all his might when a flash of sparks explode a few feet from him. He jumps, slipping on the icy floor and falls on his butt. He adjusts his glasses and stands back up, trying the intercom once more. After no response, he tries the lever again. Pulling and grunting with all his might, he finally feels a release and stumbles to the floor again. He smiles victoriously until he realizes that he didn't pull the lever, he broke the lever clean off the wall. He holds the piece of metal in his hand and lifts in up in front of his horrified face. "Mommy?" He mutters as he looks at the gauge, which is now at 350.

Freddie notices some thermal variation and radios over to Effy. Effy looks over her shoulder to the guys and shouts as she gets closer to them, "Hey Cook! Check the hose connection, Colonel Mclair has picked up some thermal variation" Effy radios Emily on the ship, "Emily, can you check the couplings? We have a disturbance with the connection." Emily double checks, not seeing any issues and Cook shakes his head and throws his arms up in the air. Effy nods and heads back to Panda.

Panda starts to feel the vibration and her eyes go big. She studies the controls before looking into the intercom monitor. She sees Sid screaming and waving his hands into the camera, "Fuck me up the arse three ways!" Panda runs to the pod's entrance and screams, "PULL THE LEVER! PULL IT NOW!"

Effy realizes what's happening and joins Panda at the pod, "SID! SHUT IT DOWN! NOW!"

Panda jumps down the tube to help Sid. "What the fuck happened?!" Panda frantically looks at the gauge and controls.

"I did everything you told me to do!" Sid screams, tears in his eyes.

"Did you pull the lever?!" Panda screams while looking at some wires.

"This _is _the lever!" Sid holds up the metal stick and grabs his head with worry.

Panda's eyes go wider than before, "No no no no no no!" She steps back up the ladder and shuts the gas flow from the main controls. "Effy! Get your crew BACK to the ship!"

Effy looks around as a loud bang shakes the station, "What was that?!" Cook, Rob, and Thomas all freeze and look at each other and around the station.

Tony hears what's going on and tries to radio back, but one of the previous explosions fried the connection. This prevents Houston from contacting the space station, but still allows them receive a sound feed. All they can do is listen in horror as the chaos continues.

"EF! TO THE SHIP NOW! WE HAVE A LEAK!" Panda screams with a serious face as she pulls a lever and looks at some blinking buttons.

Tony covers his head with his hands as the panic radios over. "Jesus Christ…this isn't happening!" Tony and the missions crew watch the blinking tracking lights of the crew members. Tony radios Freddie, "Mclair! What's going on?"

Freddie looks over at the bridge, "Not sure yet sir, there were some thermal variations and lots of vibrations."

Effy runs to Cook, Rob, and Thomas, "We gotta move NOW! Back to the ship! Have everyone get into their seats and buckle up for an emergency break away!"

Cook, Rob, and Thomas look at Effy in panic and drop the tube. Cook disconnects the tube and they all run back to the bridge. Rob gets in first, "JJ! Naomi! Ems! We got to disconnect the tube now! Just leave it! Get in your seats right now and buckle up!"

Naomi and JJ drop the tube while Emily unhooks the connections. Naomi helps Emily and they all run to their seats, "What's going on?" Emily says as she buckles up. "I felt some shaking?"

Rob looks down the bridge as Cook jumps in his chair and buckles up. "There is a leak, love. This isn't good. We have to break away."

Freddie radios over to Effy, "We have 98 percent of our fuel, get your asses back over here and let's get the hell out!"

Panda is finishing the shut down procedures, but it's too late. An explosion comes from the fuel pod, blasting the pod door up into the cabin of the station. It crashes into the tubes and wires on the ceiling sending sparks and flames fly everywhere. Effy and Panda duck down, avoiding debris that is now falling from the ceiling and out of the fuel pod.

"Panda! Come on! We have to get out of here!" Effy grabs Panda by the shoulders and leads her away from the flaming pod.

The noise of motors grinding down and the vibrations of more explosions shake both ships. Effy stumbles with Panda and they fall to their knees. "Ef! What about Sid!?" Panda says in a frantic voice.

Effy looks back over her shoulder to see the intercom monitor, all she can see are flames and smoke. "I think he's gone Panda, and we will be too if we don't get out of here!"

Tony watches all but one blinking light get on the ship. "Mclair! What's going on up there!?"

Freddie radios back, "There's a leak sir, and a fire in the fuel pod. We have 98% of our fuel and are initiating an emergency break away. Just waiting on Stonem, Jenkins, and Moon sir." Freddie nervously looks down the bridge, seeing the smoke making it's way into the ship.

Effy throws Panda through the station's port and onto the bridge. "Start her up Mclair!" Effy pulls a shaken Panda down the bridge as more explosions come from the other ship. Effy helps Panda into the ship and jumps in. Before she shuts the door, she looks back and whispers, "I'm so sorry Sid, thank you." She turns back and directs Panda to Sid's seat and takes her own. "Come on man, get us out of here!"

Tony radios over as Freddie starts to disengage from the space station and with a giant thrust, takes the ship to safety. "Tell me what's going on! Is everyone alright!?"

Effy radios back, a little out of breath. "Copy. We are out of danger, but we lost Jenkins. We have Colonel Moon on board in his place." A giant explosion from the International Space Station causes Effy to gasp. "The space station is gone now, we lost Jenkins in the fire that started in the fuel pod."

Tony pauses and bites his knuckle, "Well, that's awful about Sid. I'm glad you all are alright. I know this is hard, but we still have a job to do."

Effy nods, "Copy." Effy takes a second to breath and she reaches out for Freddie's hand. He looks at her and nods. She turns around and faces the shocked and saddened crew. "I'm so very sorry about your mate. He was a good man, and we couldn't have done this without him."

Rob nods with a stern face, "Thank you. Let's all just take a moment for friend okay?" The group sits in silence as they watch the remaining parts of the space station explode from a far.

Panda breaks the silence as she pouts, "Awe, I wish I grabbed my music machine. I don't know what it's bloody called cause everything's written in Japanese…but it's what's kept me sane the last 18 months." Emily lifts her eyebrow in amazement of Panda's comment and looks at Naomi. Panda continues talking to herself, "Man, I'm starving. I could so go for a doughnut right now." Naomi quietly giggles with Emily over Panda's oblivious attitude while Thomas turns back and smiles at her.

XXXXX

**Everyone let's give the BIGGEST space cadet a warm welcome to the group! Yay for Panda! XD I hope you all are enjoying! :D I hope to have the next update soon! :P Enjoy your days and nights!xx**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hellooooo :D Don't know what to say, but here's an update :D Thanks for reading and to those who review, extra kissies for you XD Oh, Molly...sorry babe :( Didn't mean to piss you off and ruin your day! And Sam, you're out of this world, you always put a smile on my face...see? :D ENJOY! xx**

Katie hands Jenna and James a cup of tea and sits down with her own cup. They all listen as the news anchor speaks, "So while the consciousness of the planet is unified, focused on the NASA mission taking place right now in the ocean of space, we're now in the final hours of the mission as the team prepare to slingshot around the moon."

"Fucking hell…" James says quietly. Jenna snaps her head at James for his choice of language, but takes his hand instead of scolding him and holds it tight.

Katie looks at James and takes his other hand in hers. She pauses and bites her lip before sighing and saying, "Come on guys, let's not watch this anymore, yeah?" She clicks the remote at the TV and the screen flashes off. "Let's go get some ice cream." Katie stands and smiles at her mother and brother. "I am confident they will complete their mission and if something goes wrong, I'm not going to wait around for the world to end."

Jenna nods, "Well I do enjoy sweets when I'm stressed…" She looks at James and squeezes his hand.

"Yeah, if we're going down…I'm going down fat and happy!" James smiles and bounces off the couch. "Let's go, I'm getting loads of hot fudge on mine."

XXXXX

Naomi rubs her eyes and looks out the port closest to her. She sits up and clears her throat as the massive craters on the grayish white moon greet her. She takes a deep breath and looks at Emily, who is still sleeping. Naomi smiles and brushes Emily's forehead lightly with her fingertips, causing Emily to stir. Emily opens her eyes and takes a quick breath. "Fuck, I almost forgot where I am." Emily smiles at Naomi as she stretches. Emily looks around at Cook, Thomas, Rob, JJ, and Panda all snoozing around her. She yawns before looking through the port, "Fuuucking hell…" Emily gasps as she takes in the vision of the moon.

"Isn't it something?" Naomi smiles as she looks out the port again.

"Well take a good look while you can ladies," Effy's voice comes from the front of the shuttle. "We actually need to wake the rest of the crew up. It's almost time for our burn around it." Effy looks over her shoulder and smiles at Emily and Naomi.

Naomi nods and shrugs because this peaceful moment is ruined by reminder of their pending adventure. "Well, while we have a moment…" Naomi smiles as she leans in closer to Emily. Emily smiles a cheeky grin and meets Naomi's lips with hers.

"Niiiiice. Tip topperoo…I mean really mint ladies." Naomi rolls her eyes as Cook's words invades her and Emily's moment.

"COOK!" Effy looks over her shoulder and smiles, "I need you to wake up the rest of the crew yeah?"

Cook nods and wakes Thomas with a nudge, then turns around to Rob and punches him in the leg. Rob doesn't react, but just licks his lips and shifts his head to the other side. Cook giggles as the evil grin spreads across his face and he turns to JJ, moving his fingers across JJ's knee in a spider-like fashion.

JJ's eyes fly open and he swats at his knee violently, "Bobbins! Fuck's sake Cook! I hate spiders!" JJ glares at Cook but it subsides into a smile, "Why do think I opted to work in the middle of the ocean verses the Australia gig Rob was offered?" JJ shakes the skin crawling feeling off and mumbles to himself as he looks out the port, "Freakin' spiders."

Rob is now awake with all the commotion and yawns, "Are we there yet?"

"Almost Rob," Freddie says from the front. "We are awaiting our orders to execute the burn around the moon." Rob nods and looks out the port.

"Bonkers, that's quite a sight." Panda chirps from the back of the shuttle.

Thomas smiles back at her, "I can see why something so magnificent as the moon, would be included in your name." Panda smiles and giggles from her seat and hides her blushing cheeks.

XXXXX

Tony enters the mission control room and looks at the countdown clock. He shakes his head at the 17 hours, 3minutes, 51 seconds as it illuminates on the screen. Tony adjusts his head set and nods after checking the settings and controls of several monitors. He nods at the CAPCOM controller and clears his throat as he radios the shuttle.

XXXXX

"Okay! Good morning folks! We have a big day!" Tony's voice comes through the radio. "How is everyone feeling?"

"Feeling good man, ready when you are." Freddie radios back.

"Fabulous, when you're ready you may commence booster sequence." Tony says.

Effy nods at Freddie as they synchronize controls and flip switches. "Houston, we have confirmed booster sequence."

"Copy that." Tony's voice is stern. "Just to remind you guys, radio contact will be terminated during the burn. Good luck and Godspeed."

Effy turns around and addresses the crew. "Alright guys, we trained for this. We have 9.5 Gs for 11 minutes. It will be extremely heavy, so just suck it up and endure it okay?"

Thomas lets out a puff and a quite, "Mon dieu."

JJ looks at Cook and Rob, "I'd start praying about now."

Freddie radios over to Houston, "Stand by for lunar roll. High inclination lunar orbit."

"Copy that, we have 18 seconds until radio contact termination. Godspeed." The controller says over the radio.

Freddie calls over his shoulder, "Here we go folks." The ship begins to roll and the moon's surface fully appears in the main port. "On my mark." Effy nods at Freddie. "In 5...4...3...2.."

BOOOOM! The shuttle is sent into violent shaking as the powerful boosters propel the shutter around the moon. The shuttle rattles and squeaks, the force pushing everyone deep into their seats.

Cook cringes and hollers, "Is this supposed to be like this?"

JJ grits his teeth, "Don't worry, it's normal!"

Cook can't even muster a smile and just groans, "Yeah fuckin' right…normal." He clenches his jaw and forces his eyes shut to take the pressure.

Effy slowly exhales a shallow breath as she glances at the monitor, "4Gs!"

"Fourteen thousand miles per hour." JJ mutters through the vibrations.

Freddie squints as he announces, "6 Gs! 8 Gs! Hang tight!"

The shuttle is blasting around the moon at 18,000 miles per hour and Rob yells, "Christ this is heavy!"

Thomas shouts, "Definitely not normal!"

Emily just sits there with a calm face as she takes the massive force like a champ. Naomi grunts through her clenched jaws, "You guys are a bunch of pussies!"

"Whooohoo!" Panda wails from the back, enjoying the ride.

Twelve minutes without radio contact and 10 Gs, the crew is in pain and Cook starts to laugh hysterically. Effy sputters out, "We are maxed out at 12 Gs!"

JJ shouts victoriously, "That's 22,500 miles per hour! Not faster than Superman, but pretty damn fast!"

The ship begins to calm it's shaking and rattling as it slows. Effy announces, "We have signal." She nods at Freddie and he flicks a switch.

A rather relieved Tony's voice comes through the radio, "Welcome back team!" The ship is slow enough for the crew to move their appendages and breath easier now. The moon is still in their view, but now the cloud of debris from the asteroid's tail ominously dances before them. "You should have visual of the target at this point."

"Copy that Houston," Freddie says, "We have visual…and what a beast it is." Freddie watches as pieces of rock and ice slam into the moon's surface. The impact explosions are muffled, but make it sound like a war zone outside the ship. They come up behind the asteroid and the Earth appears in the distance. "FOD Radar engaged!"

Effy calls over her shoulder, "Hang on! This could get rough." She presses a few buttons and announces, "Engaging evasive radar!"

The ships jerks and shutters in violent thumps. Debris is prominent and whizzing past the ports of the ship. "Fuck me that was close!" Naomi mutters to herself as she rides out the ship's shaking.

Effy shakes her head, "There's too much debris! I'm dumping the auxiliary boosters!" With a flick of her fingertip, a load hiss, and a crash the boosters detach from the ship and cruise out into space.

"Nice, _more_ junk." Naomi rolls her eyes as she watches the booster through her port.

Freddie and Effy steer the ship further into the debris field. The ship jolts to from side to side, avoiding massive fragments of ice and rock. A large cluster of debris careens towards the ship and Effy's eyes go wide, "Oh fuck me! We're going to hit!"

XXXXX

Tony drops his mug of tea and it crashes to the floor as the signal goes out. "What just happened?!" He grabs the sides of his hair and tugs with worry. "Get them back right now!" Total chaos breaks out in the mission control room as workers desperately try to regain contact with the ship. Tony paces as the last words of, "We're going to hit" echoes in his brain. He shuffles through papers and runs to his computer to check readings. "CAPCOM! What is going on!?" Tony storms around, anxious to get some answers. "NO ONE LEAVES THIS ROOM UNTIL WE HAVE A SIGNAL!"

XXXXX

The shuttle jumps with a horrible crunch noise, everyone feels the vibrations shutter through their feet. "Oh man, that didn't feel good." Cook looks at JJ in panic.

Freddie smacks his hand on the controls panel, "Fuck! We lost our navigation! We're going to have to land this blind." Freddie looks at Effy with worry.

Effy nods and takes a breath. "Okay then. Blind it is." The ship continues dodging fragments and slaloms through the debris field. "Okay when I touch this baby down, full reverse thrust!" The debris begins to clear and the monstrous asteroid reveals it's ugly face. Giant shards of ice and rock rise from the surface of the rock. Effy lowers the ship's landing gear and loud sounds similar to glass breaking is heard through the ship's walls. The ship jolts as it hit's the surface, sliding and breaking more ice shards as the ship surfs the foreign ground. Effy shouts, "NOW!"

Freddie nods, "Reversing the thrusters!" A massive roar slows the ship and it finally comes to a complete stop.

Cook pants and looks around at a whimpering JJ, "Alright JJ?" Cook asks while turning back and patting JJ's knee.

JJ nods, "Yes, I just have a bad feeling is all."

"Well keep it to yourself JJ, we have a job to do yeah?" Rob nods as he stretches his arms.

"Initiate system light, system check!" She unbuckles her belt and grabs a manual, immediately whipping it open.

"Did something break?" Emily asks with concern as she cranes her neck from the back of the shuttle.

Effy looks over her shoulder and smiles slightly, "Just want to make sure we can still get off this rock." She continues flipping switches and pressing buttons ferociously.

"Our electrical system is screwed, must have happened when we hit that fragment." Freddie mumbles over blipping monitors and flashing lights.

"Go to back-up." Effy pulls a lever and looks up at a monitor, "Fuel seals…check! Engine seals…check….Pressure seals…check!"

Rob unbuckles himself and peeks out the port and lifts an eyebrow. He bites his lip and cringes before turning back to the crew, "Okay! We got 8 hours to get this job done and hopefully be home in time to catch X- Factor yeah?" Rob tries to rile the crew up, although everyone is just in shock from the journey to the asteroid and the shear madness of their new environment. "Naomi, let's get the tools unpacked and fire up the Armadillo yeah?"

Naomi shakes herself out of it and nods at Rob, "Yeah, let's go guys! Suit up, remember your thrusters!" She gives Emily's knee a squeeze as she passes by her.

Everyone gets up and into their gear while Freddie and Effy handle the ship's repairs. The crew is ready and all meet at the main cargo hold door that lowers them to the asteroid surface. As the door lifts, the eerie sight of the asteroid is overwhelming. The uneven ground with razor sharp shards of ice and rock extending at every angle. The gang head out further to set up while JJ looks around and shakes his head before turning back to the ship.

Freddie turns to Effy, "The inertial navigation system's still down, we most likely missed our landing target." Effy nods and shrugs as she continues checking her systems while Freddie mutters to himself, "I don't even know where we are…"

"I know where we are." JJ interrupts and startling Effy and Freddie in the process.

Effy shakes her head in frustration, ignoring JJ's presence, "Radio's still down. I'm flipping the backup generator, but the radio signal's going to be cut in half until we get full power."

JJ pulls out some graphic pictures of the asteroid that have been marked in grids and smacks his finger on a spot on picture. "We're in segment 202, lateral grid 9, site 15H-32, give or take a few yards. In other words, you missed the landing by 26 miles." JJ grits his teeth.

Freddie rolls his eyes, "Yeah mate? And how the hell do you know that JJ?"

"Because I'm a genius!" JJ snaps.

"We had damage to our systems, we do the best we can in these kind of situations." Effy looks at JJ, "I'm sorry, we will just have to drill from where we are, you guys are the best…prove it." Effy shakes her head and looks at Freddie, "The gauges will not read. They're all peaked like we're plugged into some kind of-"

"Magnetic field?" JJ glares at Effy, starting to panic. "I knew I had a bad feeling!" JJ's melt down begins and he starts to breath rapidly. "The reason we were shooting for grid 8 is because thermographics indicated that grid 9 was compressed iron ferrite." Freddie gnashes his teeth and huffs and turns back to the controls while JJ gets more riled up. "Which _means_…that you landed us on an fucking iron plate!"

"Okay mate, calm down yeah? You're getting locked on!" Freddie stands up and places his hands on JJ's shoulders. He bows his head down and locks his eyes on JJ's, "It will be okay, just get out there and join your crew. We have work here, and you have work as well. Let's get to it yeah?"

JJ takes a few breaths and nods quickly, "Ss ss sorry. I tend to get locked on in stressful situations."

Freddie nods, "S'okay man."

"Let's get the remote satellite rolled out, we need that radio link." Effy stands up to get suited up.

XXXXX

JJ walks around with a handheld machine that reads minerals. He scoops up some rocks and shakes his head as the machine beeps and reads iron ferrite. JJ looks over at Rob who is running his fingers through the material and watching it fall through his fingers down to the surface of the asteroid. JJ slumps his head, "God I hate knowing everything…" He comes up to Rob and kneels down next to him, "Couldn't have picked a worse spot to drill."

Rob shrugs his shoulders, "Yeah, this is mostly iron…it better not be more than 50 feet." Rob looks up at JJ as Emily joins them.

"What happens after 50 feet?" Emily asks.

"Well…if this iron ferrite is deeper than 50 feet? We're screwed love." Rob looks down at his feet before popping up and looking around. "Well, let's get to it then…" Rob walks over closer to the ship to check on Naomi's progress with the Armadillo. Emily watches him walk off and heads to her spot to get set up.

"Okay Naoms…let's take it easy now!" Rob yells as Naomi drives the armadillo over the shards of ice. "Over here! In this valley type area!" Rob motions with his arm as Naomi nods and follows his direction.

Emily sets up her equipment and takes a moment to take in her surroundings, "This place is like Dr. Seuss's worst nightmare…" She shakes her head and tries to focus on the task at hand.

Thomas and Cook have all the pipes laid out carefully, while JJ prepares the transmission settings. "Oi! We're all set over here!" Cook shouts at Rob and Rob waves as he walks over, Naomi trailing in the Armadillo.

Rob and Cook check the connections of the Armadillo and give Naomi the thumbs up to fire the engine. "Bring 'er down Naomi!" Rob calls as he directs her with his hands.

Naomi puts her hand on the gear shift and rubs the glowing red eyes of the skull at the top of the lever. She looks around and pulls it down mumbling to herself, "Freaking outer space."

Rob smiles, "Alright, we're in!" The Armadillo makes a loud groaning noise, "Naoms? You good?"

"Yeah! Just getting her warmed up!" Naomi waves from the controls.

Cook leans down towards the drill head and nods, giving Naomi a thumb up, "We're cutting through pretty good!"

"Cool, let's punch it down!" Naomi pulls moves the gear and the Armadillo jerks as the head kicks into the next speed. The sound of metal creaking and grinding into the asteroid is quite loud, forcing everyone to cringe behind their visors.

"Yeah yeah, good Naoms! Oh! Watch yourself through here! We got a couple of big fissures…" Cook cocks his head to the side as he watches the drill head begin to chew the surface of the asteroid. While holding his hand up and directing her, he sees sparks and throws his other hand up and shouts, "Whoa! Whoa! Naoms stop!"

Naomi stops and throws her arms up, "What? We've seen sparks before, what's the big deal?"

"Sounds like we twisted a shank!" Cook shouts to Rob.

Rob nods, "Back it up Naoms!" Naomi rolls her eyes and pulls it back. "Yeah, good! Hold 'er there!" The groups stares in shock at the chewed up head, the massive teeth grinded down to nubs.

JJ smiles at Thomas, "Well now. This is a goddamned Greek tragedy."

Rob shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips, "Okay okay, we've all seen broken drill heads before."

"Yeah man, but not after 10 feet…" Cook wipes off some rock dust from his visor of his helmet.

JJ shakes his head, "I've never seen one."

Rob looks annoyed at both JJ and Cook, "NOW YOU HAVE! Let's go…" Rob shrugs and motions Cook and JJ back to the ship.

XXXXX

Freddie stands outside the remote satellite and kicks it with his foot. "Fucking hell! Come on!"

Effy approaches Freddie, "Now now, that's not going to help any of else."

Freddie slumps his head and sighs with exhaustion, "I've been trying for the past hour, and it's still not reading."

"It's okay, we'll get it to work. Hey, I bet Panda might have some helpful hints." Effy pants Freddie on the back and walks back to the ship.

Panda is scrolling through the manual and slams it shut as Effy appears in the cabin. "I got it!" She jumps towards the panel and starts pressing, pulling, and twisting in a mad frenzy that only Pandora Moon could pull off. Effy stands in awe as Panda finishes tinkering with the cords and switches and stands back. "Okaaay Ef, give it a try."

Effy lifts her eyebrows and smirks as she takes a step closer to the controls. "Okay, here goes nothing." Effy pulls a lever down and a few sparks fly, causing some smoke to fill up in front of the girls. Effy quickly lifts the lever back up and looks at Panda nervously. "That can't happen Panda."

"Right! Sorry…" Panda pulls out the chewing gum she's been chomping on for hours and molds it between her fingers. "Mum always called me a female MacGyver." Panda giggles as she sticks her gum onto two twisted wires and molds the gum around the ends.

XXXXX

Tony, exhausted from the last few hours is racking his brain for ways to reestablish communication. He sits at his desk, resting his arms on the top and flops his head on his arms. He buries his face into his arms and screams, "Come on Effy! Come back to us!" He lifts his head because he hears hoots and hollers from the control room. He jumps up and runs down to the floor and stares up at the screen. "What's happened?!" Tony looks around.

"All of a sudden we got static!" One of the controllers cheers.

Tony squints his eyes, "Wait…turn up the feed! I think I hear something!"

Panda's voice is muffled, "So that's who you've been makin' monkey with? I've always wondered what monkey would be like with a-"

"Panda! Look! We have static!" Effy interrupts cheerfully while adjusting a knob. "Do you hear anything?"

Tony grabs his head set and starts radioing over to the ship. Effy strains to hear and adjusts another knob. "Houston? Do your read? Houston?" A garbled Tony comes through and Effy takes a deep sigh of relief, "Houston! We have landed safely! Do you copy?!"

"Copy that, so great to hear your voice!" Tony shouts with a smile. "We don't have a visual yet, but we can work that out. Do you have any damage to the ship?"

"We hit some debris and lost some feeds, but we're working on it right now. I'm getting our exact coordinates right now…they are 15H-32."

Tony whips around and demands, "I want to know everything about that location…now!"

Effy continues, "We're still having electric and antenna difficulties…We scraped the bottom of the ship pretty good on the way in. However, we have commenced drilling…"

XXXXX

"Set it there boys," Rob says to Thomas and Cook as they set the new drill head down in front of the Armadillo.

"Okay Noams, thread it!" Cook hollers to an impatient Naomi in the Armadillo.

"Come on guys! The clock it ticking! Let's go! Go! Go! Go!" Naomi shouts as she waits for the guys to secure the head.

Thomas smiles, "Good! Crank it loose!"

Naomi grins as Rob cocks his head at her, "Keep it at 25!"

Naomi rolls her eyes and nods. "Okay! Let's kick a little asteroid butt yeah?! She fires up the drill and lowers it to the hole. "Okay Cook! Give me more torque on the turbine!"

The drill whines as it chews through the ground. Rob looks up at Naomi, "I need more power down here!"

Naomi smirks and grins, "Ask! And you shall receive!" She smiles as she throws it into 4th and drops the hammer.

Cook grins at the drill as it shoots dust and rock bits everywhere, "Come on! Chew this iron bitch up!"

"Merde! Rob! The tranny's stuck!" Thomas calls Rob over to the machinery.

Rob steps around the drill and waves his arms at Naomi, "Release the clutch! Pull it up!" Naomi releases the clutch, but nothing happens. "No! No! No! Naomi! Shut it down! Shut it-" Naomi shoves the gear down and an explosion sends Rob into the air and 20 feet away.

Rob crashes to the ground with a groan as Thomas runs to his side, "Are you alright?"

Rob groans, "Blew the tranny, blew the tranny." Thomas helps Rob to his feet and helps brush the dirt and rock bits from this suit.

"That was quite a trip you had, are you sure you're alright Rob?" Thomas asks with concern.

"Yeah Tommo, thanks. How about we just go get that extra transmission from the ship. When we get home, we are all due for a pint and a massage." Rob smiles as he pats Thomas on the shoulder. They walk back to the shuttle, noticing how the Earth's size is growing larger in the distance.

**Hope to have an update soon :D With a transmission down and time running out, I don't want to leave you hanging! XD Thanks again for reading! **


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi, thanks again for reading! For those lovely lovlies who take the moment out of their busy lives to leave a review and put a smile on my face...THANK YOU :D Hope you enjoy...**

**I own nothing... :D**

Tony looks up at the clock to see the countdown is at 6 hours and 30 minutes. He shakes his head, "Let's get that feed up NOW! And what's up with 15H-32?!" He runs his hand through his hair and paces impatiently.

The mission room door bust open and government officials enter the room. The controllers look in wonder and fear as the officials make their way to Tony. With hands full, Tony exits a room and stops abruptly in his tracks as the officials address him. "May we speak to you privately?" One of the officials ask, Tony nods and motions them to follow him back into the room he just left.

Tony sets the armful of papers and graphic maps down and offers the two officials who followed a seat. "Tony, we've known each other a while now. In this situation, I insist on addressing you informally." One of the officers says with a nervous smile.

"Sure Doug, I have no problem with that…but does Harriet?" Tony smiles at the stern faced Harriet who appears to be all business.

"That's fine Doug. Tony…how are you holding up? From what we hear, there have been a few bumps in the road of this mission." Harriet smirks and looks around at the mission screens only showing a fuzzy snow.

"We're working on it, and they've landed and have started drilling." Tony grits his teeth for he knows where Harriet is going with this inquisition.

"Started? We need to be at least 700 feet by now!" Harriet snaps in shock. "We have 12 minutes before we need to remote detonate!" Harriet shakes her head and rubs her knuckles nervously.

Doug looks at Harriet and then Tony, who is rubbing his worried eyes, and asks, "Tony, what is your plan? Time is running out, and things only seem to be getting worse."

Tony nods, "Yeah, I know. To make matters worse, it seems as though the asteroid was stable before it passed the moon, but now it's spinning and tumbling about. This wasn't expected and it's totally screwing with our communication." Tony looks at Harriet and Doug's concerned expressions and exhales. "We're currently trying to bounce a signal off a Russian military satellite to try and reestablish contact."

Harriet pauses and chooses her words very carefully, "If we lose the shuttle communication, when do we lose the ability to remote detonate that nuke?"

Tony sighs, "We'll have definite contact for about 7 more minutes if we can get through. After that, we'll have radio darkness and that may be the last time we hear from them."

"Well the weapon remote receives a signal from a satellite from a high orbit, so the transmitter is more powerful. We should get at least an extra 5 minutes to remote detonate. In short, we have 12 minutes to remote detonate before we lose the ability to." Doug shrugs and rings his hands.

Tony brings his hands to his face, pushes his hair back, and shuts his eyes, "You know Doug, I wish you could just give us an 'Oggy Oggy Oggy' and say everything's going to work." Tony smiles and breathes out in a huff.

Doug smiles sympathetically and looks down at his hands, "The feeling is mutual Tony."

XXXXX

Rob, JJ, and Thomas enter the ship's cargo hold to retrieve the spare transmission. Freddie is going through more systems checks and pops up as they approach. "What's up guys?"

"Well, we're drilling thought some kind of metal I've never seen before. It's fried 2 of our drill bits and now we've blown our first transmission." Rob explains as they start to unpack the equipment.

"How deep are we mate?" Freddie steps out from the control panel and cocks his head at Rob with concern, pulling out a card from his front zipper pocket. "Says here that we should be well past 600 feet." Rob clenches his jaw and stares into Freddie's eyes. "Well man? Where are we?" Freddie looks at JJ and Thomas, starting to get angry. "Out with it yeah? I have an assessment report due now, once the girls get us back online." JJ looks at Thomas and then at Rob who just shakes his head and continues to unpack. Freddie, now riled up slams his hand down on Rob's to stop him from unpacking anymore equipment. "You've had 2 and a half hours to drill, WHERE ARE WE?!"

JJ snaps, "57 feet okay! We're at 57 fucking feet! So back the FUCK off and let us get this transmission so we can hit 800 feet!" Thomas puts his hands on JJ's shaking shoulders to try and calm him down. Freddie stands in shock and looks down at the ground with his mouth a gape. He quickly walks back to the cock pit where Effy and Panda are working to get communications back up.

Freddie looks around and mumbles something about secondary protocol to himself and paces off. JJ watches Freddie walk off and follows him to the cock pit, locked on and furious. Freddie joins the girls and frantically explains the depth and his concern for the mission. "We have to get this ship ready to go, we have to leave, we have to get off this rock and remote detonate…" Freddie mumbles to himself as he fiddles with the controls.

"You need to breathe and calm down." Effy urges Freddie. "We almost have the connection up, so we'll ask for Houston to advise okay?" Effy tries a switch and the screen flashes to a clear picture of the mission control room. "We're up!"

Freddie turns the camera towards him and desperately starts panicking about the current depth. "Houston! Please advise, we are only at 57 feet and according to the drill time card, we should be well past 600, that's four hours past the zero barrier. Please advise! Houston do you copy?" Freddie looks at Effy who is busy trying to keep the signal. Freddy looks at Effy and shrugs, "Houston do you read? Fuck. We lost it…"

Suddenly JJ lunges forward, "What the hell is this? A guide card to drilling? If YOU didn't land us on a freaking iron plate we would be there already!"

"JJ! Whaaaat the fuck!?" Effy snaps at the crazed JJ.

Freddie shakes his head and takes his card back, "You guys had your shot, you blew it and now we have to take matters into our own hands." Freddie is fiddling through a manual reading about Secondary Protocol.

"Don't you DARE attempt any kind of secondary protocol. I know what you're up to and it's not going to happen!" JJ shouts as he lunges again for Freddie's manual.

"Hey! You need to calm the fuck down! You are further proving that you and your team are the biggest mistake in the history of NASA." Freddie snaps and he rips his manual from JJ's grasp.

XXXXX

Tony and the rest of the controllers watch and listen in horror as the scene unfolds before their eyes. Doug shakes his head as Harriet hangs up a phone and nods at him. He looks at Tony, "We need to evacuate right now. The decision has been made, and I've been ordered to override the system."

Harriet walks towards Tony and Doug and nods, "It's time for secondary protocol…get your team out of there. I'm so sorry Tony."

XXXXX

Effy gets up and holds her arms out to JJ. "Listen to me, you have to calm down yeah? They will blow this nuke with us still on this rock, we have to get your crew back to the ship and drop this bomb and get out of here as soon as we can."

JJ takes a few deep breaths. "If we drop it now, it won't do anything. You need to stop the secondary protocol. Tell them! They can't blow us up!"

Effy smiles to calm JJ, "I will when we have the connection up. We're still working on it okay?" JJ nods and turns around, walking to where the nuke is stored on the ship.

XXXXX

Rob and Thomas manage without JJ to get the transmission unpacked and back to the site. The ground is shaky and looks a bit different from when they were last outside the ship. "Hey Rob?" Thomas asks as the step over shards of crystal and ice.

"Yeah Tommo?" Rob grunts over the exertion of carrying the transmission.

"Does it seem different out here to you?" Thomas looks around at their surroundings.

Rob looks around and nods, "Yeah, it does seem different…like darker and almost windier? Is there wind on this thing?" Rob smiles at Thomas and laughs.

They reach Naomi, Cook, and Emily who are ready to hook up the new transmission and continue drilling. "Oi! Took you long enough! You're missing all the action!" Cook jokes from the Armadillo.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Rob asks as Thomas and him set the transmission down.

"You know, it's just getting pretty wild out here. Shit's blowing around and these boulder like things keep rolling past us…it's like a bowling alley and we're the pins!" Cook laughs.

"It's not funny Cook, it's getting scary out here." Emily scolds Cook for joking.

"Awe, don't worry Red. Naoms here will protect you." Cook smiles at Naomi.

"Seriously Cook, shut up yeah? Let's just get this transmission on and get back to work…you're acting like a loon lately, I think you've got space madness or some shit like that." Naomi rolls her eyes and looks at Emily with worry.

Rob and Thomas get the transmission and a give Naomi the signal to commence drilling. "Easy now…steady! Good! Let this big bad rock have it Naomi!" Rob yells to Naomi.

The drill is chewing away the asteroid much better now. Emily looks up at Naomi and smiles, "86 feet! Keep it up Naoms!" Naomi smiles and blows Emily a kiss.

Rob smiles as he sees the controls read 150 feet. "That's great! Keep going and I'm going to go check on JJ and see if he's getting ready to prep the nuke." Rob turns and walks towards the ship.

Suddenly a massive blast and explosion erupts from within the asteroid, forcing large pieces of rock and debris into the atmosphere.

XXXXX

Tony shrugs as he watches Doug and Harriet override the link and prepare to remote detonate the nuke from his desk. He clasps his hands together and rests his forehead on his knuckles and silently sobs for his sister and the future of mankind.

Doug looks up at Harriet and nods. She looks down as she turns the two keys simultaneously, activating the nuke. "Please let this work…" Doug whispers to himself as the timer on the screen turns to the five minute countdown till detonation.

XXXXX

JJ is packing up the nuke when suddenly the timer illuminates with 4 minutes and 59 seconds. His eyes go wide and he starts to breath heavily. "Oh my giddy giddy…aunt!" He licks his lips and blinks a few times before it registers to him that he has to move fast. He sets down the tools he was using to unhook the nuke and attach it to the cart to take it out to the site. He runs around the side, grabbing a screw driver, he pops open the fuse box and pulls out several wires. He mutters to himself as he tries to remember which wire to cut in this situation.

As the asteroid turns wildly, causing the explosion outside the ship, JJ is thrown to the ground along with the nuke itself. JJ screams in pain as the heavy bomb lands right on his chest, crushing him and breaking some ribs instantly. He tries to move, but can't budge the heavy nuke from his body. The best he can do is scream for help.

XXXXX

Freddie and Effy are standing in the cargo hold, just next to where JJ is with the nuke. When the explosion erupts, both Freddie and Effy are thrown to the ground. Effy hits her head and is slow to realize what happened. Freddie looks up at the wobbling structure, that earlier held drilling pipes, wiggle its way off the wall of the ship and start to fall towards Effy.

"Effy! Effy watch out!" Freddie pulls himself to his feet and dives at the confused Effy. He just makes it, pushing her out of the way in time, but not for himself. The steal structure crashes to the ground leaving Freddie beneath it.

Effy shakes her head to clear her fuzziness. "Freddy!" Effy screams and scrambles to her feet to try and help him. "Freds! Oh my God Freddie, can you hear me!?" She pulls at metal pieces and tries pushing steal beams off him, without any success.

"Ef…Effy?" Freddie manages to squeak out.

"Freddie?! Can you move at all?" Effy frantically tries to reach him.

"Ef…you. You got to get out of here…secondary protocol." Freddie wheezes in pain and continues to push out the words. "Ef, there's no options, you have to get off this rock. Do it for me okay? I've always loved you…"

With Freddie's last words, Effy freezes in her kneeled position with tears in her eyes. "Freds? Freds! FREDDIE!" She pulls her open palms the her face and let's out a few sobs before JJ's shrieks from the next compartment startle her. She looks back to the voice and then a Freddie once more before getting up to go to the screams.

XXXXX

Cook gets up and looks around. "Naomi! Naoms are you okay?" Cook runs to Naomi who smashed her head on the walls of the Armadillo in the blast and is slumped in her seat.

"Ems, how's Emily?!" Naomi slowly looks around and winces at the pain on the side of her head. "Is she okay?" She licks the corner of her mouth and tastes the blood that is running down her face, "Oh lovely."

Cook nods, "I'll look, that was quite an explosion…" Cook checks the equipment and gives her a thumbs up, "Everything looks okay here!" He limps around the drill and finds Emily ducked under her monitors. "Ems! You alright?!" Cook asks as he struggles to kneel down by her.

"Is she okay?!" Naomi asks louder and instantly regrets is as her voice rattles her sore head. Cook helps a shaken Emily up and she appears to be fine, just wide eyed and frazzled. Emily looks up at Naomi and nods before looking around for her dad.

"Yo! Tommo! You okay?" Cook sees Thomas getting up from the pile of rocks her landed on.

Thomas cringes, "Super merde, yeah I'm okay…just landed on, well some rocks." He pulls himself up and limps towards Cook, Emily, and Naomi. "Where's Rob?" Thomas looks around and back at the others.

Cook leans forward and squints his eyes, "Oh fuck me!" He points at a massive pile of rocks and sharp edges of ice and nastiness. Thomas looks as then joins Cook as the move to the pile as quickly as they can. "Rob!? Rob!" Cook sees Rob's hand sticking out of the rubble.

"What _was _that? I'm really getting tired of this…" Rob groans from under the rocks.

"Rob, are you hurt?" Thomas asks calmly.

"Uh, well I can't move too well. I'm stuck on my stomach, my arm is pinned, and I think my leg may be broken." He shifts and pulls out his handy flashlight that is zipped on his arm. "There seems to be one giant boulder next to me that's kind of creating a cave of rocks over me. I have enough room to tell that I don't have a lot of room at all." He chuckles sarcastically.

"We're going to try and get you out okay?!" Cook hollers through the dense barrier to Rob.

"Great, just be careful! Make sure everyone else is okay, and if so…KEEP DRILLING! We have to get the nuke in this beast and get the hell off it before it eats us alive." Rob says as he gives the thumbs up with his exposed hand.

XXXXX

Effy runs into the nuke room and is shocked to see JJ underneath the actual bomb. She calmly walks towards him, very aware that the bomb is not secured to anything. "JJ? JJ!"

JJ groans and moves his hand, for that's all he can really move. A few puffs and a gasp later, JJ manages to speak. "They've activated the remote detonate. The timer is counting down."

Effy's eyes go wide and she stands up to locate the timer on the nuke. Sure enough, the ticking down 3 minutes 23 seconds is flashing before her eyes.

"Fucking hell!" Effy says under her breath, "JJ? Can you move? Are you hurt badly?"

"No and yes." JJ grunts. "Effy, you need to cu…cut the."

"JJ?" Effy pulls out her pocket knife. "JJ! You need to stay with me!"

JJ comes back into consciousness, "You need to cut the blue wire…" And with that, JJ's injuries are too severe for his body to handle and he slips away.

Effy looks down at JJ and bites back her tears and looks at the timer, which is now blinking 1 minute 13 seconds. She takes a breath and lowers her body over the nuke's fuse box. She separates the blue wire from the bunch and places her knife between her thumb and forefinger, pressing into the sheath. With a deep breath, she shuts her eyes and flicks her knife, severing the wire. The timer stops and she holds her breath, slowly letting it out. She looks back at JJ and shakes her head with sorrow and goes to find Panda.

XXXXX

Cook comes back from getting Naomi and Emily back into the groove of drilling. "Okay Rob, we're back on. How are you feeling?"

Rob makes the so-so hand gesture and coughs, "That's good…and to be honest, it's hard to breathe and my leg is killing me." Rob says from under the debris.

Thomas looks at Cook, "Has anyone seen JJ since he went to prep the nuke?"

Cook shakes his head, "Nah man, that's were Rob was headed when this happened." He points to the pile of rocks. Cook looks off towards the ship, "I'm going to see where he's at okay?" Thomas nods and Cook heads towards the ship.

"JJ?!" Cook calls as he enters the ship. He passes the steel shelving that collapsed and looks ahead and keeps walking. "JJ?"

Effy stops him before he enters the nuke compartment, "Cook." She pauses with sympathy. "We've lost JJ. In that explosion, we lost both Freddie and JJ."

"What?" Cook stands there in shock. "You're fucking joking right?" He looks around for JJ and Freddie.

Effy's eyes begin to well up again, "No. I'm sorry Cook. They're gone. But the good news is JJ was able to help me disable the remote detonation from the secondary protocol that was activated." Cook shakes his head in disbelief. "Cook, we need to drop that nuke and get off this rock. As you can see, we're getting closer to the zero barrier and the stability of the asteroid is changing." Cook is clenching his jaw and Effy tries to get through to him, "Cook, are you understanding me? We need to leave like now. How far are you depth wise?"

Cook shakes off his grief and tries to focus, "Last I looked we were 590 feet."

Effy nods, "That will have to do. Now next we need to get that nuke out to the site. The only problem is…the nuke is what killed JJ...it fell on him." She steps back and shows Cook the room.

Cook looks and brings his hand to his face and turns his body away, "Jaykins! Jesus…" He fights the tears and looks at the nuke. "Well it gets worse..." Cook looks at Effy, "Rob is trapped under loads of rocks and debris just outside the ship."

Effy shakes her head in disbelief, "Is everyone else okay?"

"Naomi has a nasty cut on her head and Thomas is a little beat up. Emily was just shaken up, but Rob is definitely hurt but we can't get to him." Cook looks down at his feet with worry.

"Is Thomas helping Rob right now?" Effy huffs as she feels her head with her palm. Cook nods and looks back at JJ's body. " Cook? Do you think you and Thomas can handle the nuke? Moon and I are almost done getting the ship back online and fired up. We need to drop this nuke and we need to leave as soon as possible, we're running out of time." Effy pats Cook on the shoulder.

Cook nods, "Yeah, I think Tommo and I can handle it."

XXXXX

"Emily? Are you okay?" Naomi asks as she puts the drill into the next gear.

"I'm okay…I'm just a bit shaken up." Emily looks over at the mountain of rocks off to their side. "I'm worried about my dad and you…you're bleeding from the head." Emily smiles sadly up to Naomi in the Armadillo.

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Naomi smiles at Emily. "It's going to be okay Ems, we're almost there. JJ's getting the nuke in order, we'll drop it, get out of here, and detonate." Naomi smiles at Emily and moves a lever.

"Do you think Thomas will be able to get my dad out from under that pile?" Emily asks concerned.

"I'm sure he'll do the best he can, and not stop until there is nothing more he can do. We just have to try and focus on our mission, yeah?" Naomi smiles, "Where are we at?"

"Um, 715 feet. Which means we were almost there." Emily smiles with relief.

Naomi nods, "Good, because I want to go home…with you." Naomi smiles, "I love you Emily Fitch."

"I love you too Naomi Campbell." Emily smiles sweetly through her helmet visor.

XXXXX

Thomas pants and winces in pain as the salty sweat rolls into his eye, instantly burning as it drips down his face. "Rob, how are you holding up in there?"

"Oh you know I've always found a way to lay around on the job." Rob chuckles and coughs from under the asteroid rumble. How are things looking up there, I mean are we still drilling?"

"Yes, Naomi and Emily are still working. Cook went to check on JJ and I'm going to get you out from under this mess." Thomas smiles, determined to free Rob.

"Is anyone else hurt?" Rob asks.

"Nothing serious that I can see, just banged up a bit. Oh, here comes Cook now…"

Cook steps up to Thomas and stands there to collect himself. Thomas cocks his head to the side in question as he watches Cook come close to tears. "Did you see JJ?" Thomas breaks the silence.

Cook nods and bites his lip. "Yeah, I saw him Tommo. He's dead. So is Colonel Mclair." Cook looks down and takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I that explosion knocked him off his feet while he was working on the nuke. The nuke slipped off its holder and crushed him…and he's…" Cook's eye well up and Thomas pulls Cook in for a hug.

Thomas shuts his eyes and shakes his head, "We are not going to let this rock take us all. We have to get Rob out, and drop that bomb." He pulls back and gives Cook a sympathetic nod, "JJ would've wanted us to finish the job and get back home. He would want us to be honorable and save the world."

Cook nods, "Colonel Stonem wants us to take the nuke out to the site. She and that space bird are getting the ship ready to go, so no matter what depth we are…it's time." Cook looks at Thomas's progress on getting Rob out and huffs. "How's this going?"

Thomas shrugs, "Not very well, These rocks are sharp and heavy…it's not looking good."

"I'm going to go check on the depth and when I get back, we need to get that nuke in order, okay?" Cook says as he walks backwards towards Emily and Naomi, before spinning around and picking up his pace.

"Thomas?" Rob asks from his cave. "Thomas, my radio is breaking up a lot. I thought I heard we have a few casualties?"

Thomas kneels down next to the rocks and leans his back to them, "Yes. You heard correctly. We lost JJ and Colonel Mclair."

Thomas waits in silence for Rob to respond. "Thomas?"

"Yes Rob?" Thomas waits in silence again.

"What is the plan for the nuke?" Rob coughs.

"We've been instructed to drop it now. Cook is checking the depth right now, but we have to get you out."

XXXXX

Effy suits up and walks out to the site. She approaches Thomas and sees the mound covering Rob. Effy takes a breath and holds it as she comes closer. She sees Cook off in the distance, leaving Emily and Naomi who are retracting the equipment from the asteroid. She slowly exhales as she joins Thomas, looking down at Rob she asks, "Hey, how is he doing."

Thomas shakes his head, "He's got a possible broken leg and he's pinned on his stomach. He has been moving his hand enough so we know he's hanging in there…but this asteroid material is nasty. I can barely move it."

Effy nods and sees Cook a few feet away and turns to him, "What's our current depth?

"805 feet. They're removing the pipes now so that we can fit the nuke down the hole." Cook says as he kneels down next to Rob's hand and gives it a squeeze. "How you holding up man?"

Rob's hand jerks violently as he coughs, "It's worse. I think my oxygen tank sprung a leak when I got buried…it's low."

Cook looks up at Thomas and Effy and shakes his head. Effy looks down and back up at the boys and motions her head over to the ship. Cook and Thomas follow and she leads them to the nuke compartment. "You have 20 minutes to drop that nuke. I'm firing up the ship now, so get your crew back to the ship and get ready to go home."

Cook and Thomas nod in compliance as Effy leaves the room.

XXXXX

Naomi drives Emily back to the ship in the Armadillo, they're both quite from the shock of losing JJ and Freddie. They lock up the remaining equipment and head into the ship. Effy is sitting in her flight chair flipping switches while Panda, sitting in Freddie's chair, is reading her codes from the manual. Naomi pears over, "Hey, did we get our link up yet?"

Effy looks over her shoulder, "No, not yet. But you should get in your seat and buckle in. We're leaving soon." Naomi nods as she sits while Effy continues, "Cook and Thomas are dropping the nuke now."

"So when they're done, they're getting Rob out and then we're leaving before detonating?" Naomi asks while pulling the straps on her seat.

Effy clears her throat, "Just worry about prepare to leave." Effy sees Emily enter from the cargo hold, wiping the tears off her face.

"Hey," Emily says as she sits for a moment. "So how are we going to get my dad out?"

Effy stares at Emily, then Naomi and pauses, "You should get in your seat Emily, we need to leave soon."

XXXXX

"Okay Tommo, ease her down!" Cook guides Thomas as they lower the nuke into the hole. They watch as the nuke makes its way down the long tube of rock. Minutes later, the nuke is in place. Cook stares at the hole, then looks up at the Earth that is quickly growing. "I don't think I can do this man."

"It's what he wants Cook, he insisted." Thomas places his hand on Cook's shoulder. "There's no way we can get to him and he's running out of air…and we're out of time."

The guys walk away from the site and over to where Rob is trapped. Cook kneels down and grabs Rob's hand with his and let's out a few sobs. Rob reacts to Cook's touch and squeezes back. "Why does it have to be this way? Why can't it be me?" Cook sobs.

"It's… the only way Cook. There are no… alternatives…give me the remote." Rob pants, opening his palm for Cook to place it in his hand.

Emily comes running as fast as she can from the ship, "NO! WAIT! DAD!" Emily is sobbing and dives towards his hand, removing the remote very delicately and sets it besides her. She wraps her hands around his, lowering her head as she sobs.

"It's okay love, you need to go home and take care of you mother and siblings. I love you so much…" Rob's voice is faint and weak. "I'm running… out of air, so you… need to get back to the ship. I need…to complete this mission. Go, now Ems…go."

"I love you daddy…" Emily manages to squeak out between gasps for air. Cook and Thomas help Emily up as Naomi approaches.

"Would… you guys get… back to the ship?! I… love you, but you…. need… to go…" Rob mumbles.

Naomi nods and rubs Emily's back as Thomas and Cook help her back to the ship. Naomi kneels down, taking his hand, and Rob squeezes hers, "Naomi?"

"Yeah Rob?" Naomi bites back the tears.

"I've always… loved you like a son…I mean… daughter." Naomi chuckles as a tear falls from her cheek and she squeezes his hand. "Take…care…of Emily for…me."

"I will, and I love you too." Naomi coughs out.

"Go…Naoms, give… me the remote…and get back….to the ship." Rob opens his palm and Naomi places it in his hand. "I'm going… to count to 50...so hurry."

Naomi pushes herself up and runs back to the ship, joining the others as they strap in. Emily is staring in shock with tears still streaming down her face, Cook and Thomas are hanging their heads and Effy and Panda are confirming controls with each other.

Effy looks over her shoulder, "Everyone in and ready?!" She takes count of the remaining crew and nods as she looks forward to her controls. "On my mark Moon! In…3...2...1!" Effy fires the boosters and the shuttle propels forward in a massive jolt. The shuttle dodges debris similar to when they first landed. "Okay everyone, when that nuke goes we'll have to ride out the largest shockwave you'll ever know."

The shuttle is out of the asteroids tail of debris and Effy kicks the boosters into maximum force. Rob is on his last breath when he reaches 50. He smiles, thinking of all the love he had in his life up to this moment and presses the red detonator on the remote.

XXXXX

"Ems? Emily?" Emily hears a voice calling her and wonders where she is. Is she in a hospital, is she dead like JJ, Freddie and her dad? "Sweetie?" She tries to shake the fogginess from her head when she feels something warm on her hand. Emily moves towards the heat on her hand and reaches for it with her own hand. She feels a large hand on hers and opens her eyes. She eyes are sensitive and the bright light makes her head hurt.

"Emily? Sweetie are you okay? You look like you've been crying? Hey, are those my doughnuts?" Emily eyes adjust and she sees her father standing in front of her holding the television remote in his hand. She looks down at the half eaten doughnut, still pinched between her fingers, and looks back to him. He smiles as he holds up a Die Hard box set, The Sixth Sense, and Armageddon in front of her and chuckles, "Are you enjoying your Bruce Willis marathon?"

Emily jumps up and throws her arms around her dad and squeezes him tight as she begins to cry into his chest. "You okay love?" He asks as he places his hand over the back of her head. "You look like you've been crying a lot."

"I had the worst dream ever! You and mom were divorced, it was the end of the world, and you died!" Emily mumbles into his shoulder between sobs.

"Awe love, I'm right here… see?" He smiles as he tightens his grip in the Fitch hug. "Anyway love, your friend…Naomi is it? She's here. She seemed upset and didn't want to come in…said she'd wait for you outside."

**And there you have it :D Hahaha! I hope this ending didn't suck, I was trying to match it up to the "Cat Flap" scene :) Thank you all for humoring this little story, Naomily are OUT OF THIS WORLD lol See you next time...**


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